Plagiarism Risks on Academic Websites

[Susan Gerhart]

There was an extensive, but apparently isolated, case in computer science 2
years ago stretching back a few years. Partial documentation on the incident is
still online
http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/larch/msg00250.html

In summary, a Greek graduate student purportedly ftp-ed  technical reports and
conference papers, changed the title a little  and resubmitted to various
conferences. Having excellent taste in victims' work (from Princeton, UCLA, CMU,
etc.), the purported plagiarist built up an impressive publication record. He
occasionally included unknowing  co-authors from respected institutions as well.
Program committees caught the cases and tracked down and documented the numerous
publications and their sources. Ironically, his initials were "C.V."

You can't be any more blatant than this. Since a large number of CS publications
are listed in online databases now, it's unlikely this type of incident could
get as far again because referees can more easily, and do, look up prior
publications.

Susan Gerhart

P.S. I dislike this issue marking my appearance on this list - I find the
discussions on licensing issues and technology transfer very useful.


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