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A friend showed me a paper that literally copied two pages of another paper, without any reference. This clearly is a fraud. He tried to inform the authors of the original paper. Is there any other way to deal with this situation?

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Contact the editor of the journal in which the fraudulent paper was published, present your claims, and be prepared to submit evidence. If there's no response, contact the editor of the original journal - they may be able to use legal means to force the retraction of the fraudulent paper.

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    I have done exactly this in the past.
    – aeismail
    Commented Nov 30, 2015 at 17:56
  • In fact, if you really care about anonymity, you may send it to them by traditional mail at hide your address.
    – Ambicion
    Commented May 23, 2017 at 18:05
  • I've done that too. However, since the journal in which the copy of my work has been published, is a predatory open-access garbage journal, they did not reply or react in any way. Instead, I received an auto-reply: Thanks for submitting your paper. Please transfer your publication charges ... ;-)
    – UBod
    Commented Feb 6, 2022 at 14:37
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I think the editor should not be the first contacting person. Because it will be a rude act. Even there is a possibility that you misunderstood the whole thing, and authors should ask for an opinion and explanation. Therefore, first of all, I will advise you to notify the authors and ask an explanation by sending an email. If he/she do not response your email or decline your claim, then send another email to the boss of the author (or the organizational head), if authors have an affiliation. If nothing happens, then contact the editor of the journal. In the email, you need to specify (page number, figure, methodology or idea) that can be considered as plagiarism.

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    Contacting the authors lets them know who you are (contact them anonymously and they'll probably not respond), which may have adverse effects for you. Sorting this out is the editor's job, and they have the tools to do it.
    – Chris H
    Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 13:53
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    I disagree with this answer (and wish I could downvote). You should contact the authors if you find what could be an honest mistake. Plagiarism at the scale of copying two pages is cheating with intent. That's something to report to the editor and possibly the author's institution (to the research integrity officer, if they have one). Rudeness is not a consideration in this case.
    – user9482
    Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 15:04

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