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This post is related to this one. It's been almost a month, and both of the publisher and the journal have done nothing about the plagiarism. Every time I call Springer (I called them like 5 times), they say "Once they make a decision or progress, they will contact you". I also emailed some of the staff a couple of times asking what they have done so far and how long is it going to take them to decide. I was completely ignored.

They already have the proof of plagiarism and they created a plagiarism - ticket ID. Is it normal that it's been a month and they have not decided yet?

I feel something fishy about the way they are handling this issue. Since they have the proof of plagiarism, I think the article should be retracted within a day if not couple of hours.

Should I wait longer, or should I assign a lawyer? By they way, are there some organizations I can complain to regarding this issue in case I find the journal and publisher careless or taking sides?

Update 29 Jan 2023: The article was retracted about two weeks ago

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    Relax. These issues take years to work through. With your urgency you seem like a crazy person. The world does not proceed at the pace of 24-hour news, nor should it. People should take time and think and work through even the simplest decisions carefully. They are doing so.
    – Alexander Woo
    Commented Aug 16, 2022 at 21:39
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    Calling 5 times in less than a month to try and prod them to speed up their process is way over the top. So, yes, the comment was trying to prod you to consider letting them do their thing on their schedule. Your continuing to call will not be helpful at all to the process.
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Aug 16, 2022 at 21:45
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    You should be careful about your language. You have no idea if the journal is "being careless about plagiarism". More likely, they're being very careful to not incorrectly accuse an author of plagiarism, as that would expose them to significant liability.
    – Scott Seidman
    Commented Aug 16, 2022 at 23:28

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It's summertime right now for most people in the world, and therefore vacation season.

There isn't a lot of urgency to this issue; it'll be taken care of eventually. It seems simple to you, but I'm sure they have a specific process they go through, and that process is likely not simple because it'll be designed to handle a whole range of cases. It's not like just one person there who has a "remove for plagiarism" button, probably they have some busy people who all need to review the issue and who have a bunch of other things going on and may be on vacation at any given time.

They may have other more complicated issues to handle in the meantime, and are doing things on a "first in, first out" basis rather than handling the simple cases to get them done with fast.

If you contact them through a lawyer, they'll probably want to handle all responses through their lawyer, which will make everything that much slower and careful, not faster, and cost both you and them money that doesn't need to be spent.

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    @AliShadhar The people you hear from are probably not the people making the decision. They probably find it frustrating that you keep asking for an update when they assure you that they will contact you once there is something to update. It's not apparent to me that they are acting unprofessionally. I think we'd all prefer if journals moved more quickly on many aspects.
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Commented Aug 16, 2022 at 19:01
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Is it normal that it's been a month and they have not decided yet?

Plagiarism investigations often last years. So yes.

Springer is a for-profit organization, and they are not getting paid to do this. Expect corresponding disinterest.

should I assign a lawyer?

In my non-laywer opinion, you have nothing to gain by taking any further action.

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  • Thank you. It takes years even if the proof is very strong and clear?
    – Ali Shadhar
    Commented Aug 16, 2022 at 22:51
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    Yes. The result might depend on evidence, but the process mostly does not.
    – Anonymous Physicist
    Commented Aug 17, 2022 at 0:21
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    I suggest to clarify more clearly that although it often takes years, that is of course not an acceptable state of affairs and a symptom of how broken the scientific publishing system is.
    – user9482
    Commented Aug 17, 2022 at 4:13

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