Cara Lin, I was trying to craft a good response to your questions, but I think I should leave it to people with more experience publishing and editing than I have. I'll just mention that the issue of Science I just received yesterday has an article about blatant plagiarism in scientific papers and some of the tools people use to detect it.
Unfortunately, it sounds like some Chinese scientists are being encouraged by their local writing experts to copy papers on work similar to their own, changing the details to fit their own research and results. The rationale is that this allows them to present their original research in far better English than they could manage if they were writing from scratch. I can certainly sympathize with concerns about writing intelligently in a foreign language, but it's really a shame that there are scientists being told to produce papers in a way that will put a big black mark on their international repuations. Jim Crants On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 9:28 AM, Cara Lin Bridgman <[email protected]>wrote: > One of my students did a quick survey of 18 papers from 9 journals and > found a total of four ways of describing conditions for PCR reactions. I’ve > tried to standardize these examples for temperatures and times. > > Ten papers used this formula: “All PCR reactions included an initial > denaturation of 94*C for 30 s, 35 cycles of 94*C for 30 s, > 58*C for 45 s, and 72*C for 2 min, followed by a final elongation step at > 72*C for 7.” > > Five papers used this formula: “30 s denaturation at 95*C, 45 s annealing > at 58*C and 2 min extension at 72*C, a final extension step of 7 min at > 72*C.” > > Two papers used this formula: “PCR cycling conditions of an initial > denaturation step (94*C, 30 s), followed by 35 cycles at 94*C (30 s), 58*C > (45 s), 72*C (2 min) and a final extension step of 7 min at 72*C.” > > One paper used this formula: “The reaction was cycled 35 times with 94*C > (30 s), 58*C (45 s) and 72*C (2 min).” > > The question is this: When writing your own paper, does using (or copying) > one of these four ways constitute plagiarism? > > If it does constitute plagiarism, then are these papers plagiarizing each > other? Also, how does one go about describing methods for PCR reactions > without commiting plagiarism? My students and I agree that the ways are > rather limited--especially since there is not much diversity in these 18 > published papers. This is a real dilemma, because these conditions have to > be described in each paper that uses PCR--the details in terms of times, > temperatures, and cycle number change with every study and every experiment. > > If it does not constitute plagiarism, then how much of the descriptions for > other methods (statistical analysis, definitions for formula, figure > legends, table titles, etc.) can be copied before it constitutes plagiarism? > (My students and I can see a slippery slope here...) > > When writing her own PCR methods, my student tried going around this > problem by finding a paper that came close to doing the same things she did, > citing that paper, and adding a sentence to explain the changes in times or > temperatures to describe what she actually did. We do not find this a very > satisfactory solution because my student did not use the cited paper when > actually deciding how to do her PCR reactions or in any other part of her > thesis. In other words, citing that paper gives it undue credit for helping > her with her methods. > > Finding ourselves in an impasse, I told my students I'd ask you here at > Ecolog what you think and how you cope with these sorts of dilemmas. > > Thanks, > > CL > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Cara Lin Bridgman [email protected] > > P.O. Box 013 Shinjhuang http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin > Longjing Township http://www.BugDorm.com <http://www.bugdorm.com/> > Taichung County 43499 > Taiwan Phone: 886-4-2632-5484 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > -- James Crants, PhD Scientist, University of Minnesota Agronomy and Plant Genetics Cell: (734) 474-7478
