Someone plagiarised my entire paper. What should I do now?

Question

I am a high school student who published some academic. Today, I saw a paper which looked quite similar to a paper that I published back in May. I was shocked to notice that the author of that paper had plagiarised my entire paper verbatim. He went as far as saying that his results were novel and found out all by him and his co-author.

Now, this paper was published in a junk journal. I am worried because, although I do not want to pursue a career in academia, these papers mean a lot to me as I have worked so hard on them. Moreover, I believe that they can play a major role in securing me admissions at graduate college in the years to come.

I have already notified the journal but I doubt that I will get a reply. Could you please let me know the further steps to be taken too?

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

I am a high school student who has worked on multiple (well, 4 to be exact) pure math and CS papers. All of them deal with fairly significant problems, so some of them have been published by now too.

Wow. That's awesome!

Today, I saw a paper which looked quite similar to a paper that I published back in May. I was shocked to notice that the author of that paper had plagiarised my entire paper verbatim. [...] I am worried because [...] these papers mean a lot to me as I have worked so hard on them.

Yes, of course. Trust me, there is no one who has ever written a serious paper who isn't just as emotionally invested in it as you are in your own papers, so we understand. I personally discovered only a few weeks ago that some loser plagiarized some of my work and submitted it as his own (not to a journal but as a final project for a university class, fortunately), so I know quite what an annoying and hurtful feeling it is, even though in my particular case this action does not threaten me in any way.

I have already notified the journal but I doubt that I will get a reply. Could you please let me know the further steps to be taken too?

I agree with your assessment. Junk journals, like the people who publish in them, have no ethics, they are predatory entities usually based in corrupt and lawless countries. The "editor" is most likely a nephew of someone at the criminal or semi-legal enterprise that set up this journal.

As for what you should do, there aren't that many options that do not involve legal action of some sort. Basically, you should try to discredit the journal and the plagiarist (who are both complicit in this misconduct), and shame them into removing the plagiarized paper from the web, by contacting:

1. The department chair and other administrators (dean, ethics committee, ombudsperson) at the plagiarist's institution. Note that chances are this institution may itself be a very low-quality, poorly ranked and possibly corrupt institution in a less-than-developed country, so it is just as uncertain that your complaint will lead somewhere as in the case of complaining to the journal; but regardless, it certainly won't hurt to try.

2. Any journal indexing service or other similar entity that gives credibility to academic journals by including them on lists it compiles, and may not be aware of the scamminess of the journal in question. Here is an example of such a service that I found through Google (which also has a list of excluded journals that apparently it considers disreputable). I do not use such services myself so do not know which ones are important/credible and which ones aren't; perhaps others can comment on this.

3. Any news media in the country where the journal and/or plagiarist are based who may be interested in this story of academic fraud.

4. Western bloggers or journalists who are interested in dishonesty and fraud in academia. Again, I'm far from an expert on this so don't have too many specific suggestions, but Retraction Watch is a name that gets thrown around a lot.

At the end of the day, if all of those methods fail, your last resort would be legal action, since the journal and plagiarist author are committing an infringement of your copyright. Even if they are in far away countries, they are probably within the reach of the law, but it would likely be a long and costly battle, and I think you are right to want to avoid taking that route. Good luck, and keep up the good work! I'm sorry you are getting to experience the nasty part of academia at such an early stage before getting a chance to see all the good parts. I am sure this experience will not be representative and will be followed by many more positive ones.

Answer 2

Firstly, congratulations on being able to publish before college - that is a significant achievement.

In regards to your plagiarised paper, I would contact the editor of the journal that you published your article in (not the junk journal), inform them of what you have found and supply the evidence that you have found.

Answer 3

As Dan Romik notes in a comment, you need to be able document clearly that you have been plagiarized rather than the other way around.

Assuming that you can do so, contacting the journal is a good first step. If your case is well documented, you could also contact the university of those who plagiarized you. You could begin with a letter to the chairman of the department in which the plagiarizing authors are employed.

Answer 4

First of all you have priority. The date of your publication is earlier. Even if the later paper was identical by pure coincidence (however unlikely that is) you still got there first. Anyone now or in the future who conducts serious research in the area will discover that.

From a peace-of-mind point of view, I suggest you decide precisely what it is that worries you from a practical standpoint. Are you worried that the other person will receive a Fields Medal in your place? Are you concerned that it will affect your chances of being accepted at the college of your choice? Whatever the case, avoid being bitter and twisted about it -- that would only make you an unattractive prospect to work with. Always look forward not back. Only when you are very old should you look back with satisfaction at a successful and productive career.

1. Fields medal

If you build a reputation as a trailblazing mathematician with many results to your name, then that in itself will make people tend to believe you rather than this other person. In any case there will be thorough checks before presenting any awards. If they discover that someone has plagiarised you then this will lower their opinions of the other person and of the other journal.

2. College admissions

(a) The people examining your application will see that you have several published papers--not just one. (b) They will be aware of the difference between a prestigious journal and a junk one. (c) If they read your paper they will see what others led up to it and, if they are thorough, they will see if anyone has cited your results in later papers. They are less likely to pursue a thorough survey of the field unless they give that task to a grad student. If they do and discover the other paper they will clearly see that your publication date comes first. If they have the slightest thoughts of plagiarism then the dates of publication will clear that up. If they still suspect you then they will quiz you at interview to make sure you understand your own paper. Obviously you will understand it and be able to expand on it if necessary. If the subject of the other paper comes up, you can casually say you saw it and mention the flaws. There's no need to throw accusations around. Simply say "It must have been a coincidence. I was disappointed they didn't find my paper when they did their literature search. I notice they missed a few points that I covered in my paper and there were a few errors, for example ..." Allow them to draw their own conclusions. If you display a calm forgiving attitude, they will see you as a mature individual who doesn't get snarky around other people's work and therefore someone they want to have around.

Sample conversation (substitute your own words)

Interviewer: Are you aware that #### published a very similar paper on the same subject?

You: Yes, I saw that. It was in the xyx journal I believe. I have to admit I was a little disappointed they didn't find my work when they did their literature search.

Interviewer: What did you think of the other paper?

You: Well I noticed that they missed the result that ###### implies %%%%%%%. Also there seemed to be a couple of errors, for example they said that aaaaaaaaaaaaaa whereas I think I can show that bbbbbbbbbbb. Apart from that it covered pretty much the same ground.

P.S.

Before interview, thoroughly review your own paper as well as prior and subsequent papers in the same field and of course the paper you are complaining about. If they have even the slightest suspicion of you then they will test your knowledge -- that is guaranteed. If you have done this review, all the facts will be at your fingertips and they will see you as someone on top of their game. Avoid criticising the other author -- it makes you look petty. Remember to acknowledge the contributions of the other good authors. That way you will come across as thoughtful, generous and a generally good egg.

Answer 5

It would be more important to notify the editor of the journal in which your paper was plagiarized than just the editor of your journal publication (which would also be useful). It is their negligence that lead to the publication of a plagiarized article. The journal authorities should be obliged to do what's necessary as this would risk their reputation.

Date of manuscript submission is the key element to be compared here. Apart from which if your matter involves simulation, you would be having the original codes to reproduce the matter which would also serve as evidence.

Answer 6

Other suggestions have been made that I agree with (notably contact the journal you published in and the journal and publisher the plagiarized paper was published by), but you can also turn to the ethics committee of the EMS (even if you are not an EMS member nor a European resident). In particular, if your first move don't give you the expected result, you should appeal to the ethics committee ; they don't have much legal power (if any at all), but they can have some influence on journals. Ultimately, by issuing statements about such cases they can help clarify which publishers and journal can be called junk -- a good thing and something that can hurt them.

Answer 7

Copying your paper without permission of the copyright holder is copyright infringement. If you are the copyright holder, that is if you didn't assign your copyright to the paper that published it legitimately, then all you have to do is to send a DMCA takedown notice to arxiv, and you can be quite sure that the paper will be removed.

However, it is essential that you are the copyright holder. Not the author, but the copyright holder. Which you are unless you signed over the copyright to someone else. You don't have to prove it at this point, but it must be true, because you have to state under penalty of perjury that you are or that you represent the copyright holder of the paper that you think has been copied. Of course if paper that published your paper is the copyright holder, you can just ask them to send this DMCA takedown notice, which they will most likely do, since they don't want papers that they use to sell their journal to be copied.

What will happen is that arXiv will remove the paper and inform the person who put it up there. That person can then give in, or they can inform arXiv that they are the copyright holder (which you know would be a lie). If that happens, you'll have to meet in court. But I doubt that anyone would be so stupid to go to court claiming that they have a copyright on a paper that they just copied.

BTW. That approach wouldn't work if someone truly plagiarises your paper. If I read your paper and then write my own paper copying ever single idea of yours, without any original thought of my own, but rewriting everything in my own words, that would be plagiarism but not copyright infringement.

BTW. If this paper is indeed a copy of yours (not just stealing your results, but stealing your words) then removing it "in a while" is absolutely unacceptable after they receive a DMCA takedown notice. The journal has to remove it immediately or you can sue them for copyright infringement.