… but apparently Korean academia’s project to re-wrap hundreds of book covers is a homegrown effort.
[200 Korean] professors, mostly in science and engineering majors, are accused of publishing others’ works under their own names by simply changing the book covers to boost their academic profiles ahead of assessments for rehiring.
UD‘s always complaining about how boringly uniform the act of plagiarism is, but HEY. New one on me.
Yet is it even right to call this innovation plagiarism? Plagiarism involves at least glancing contact with, and often manipulation of, the writing of other people. In this scheme, carried out with the full cooperation of publishers, and in many cases with the original authors’ cooperation (publishers got to re-market “new” books; authors allegedly got kickbacks), you simply supply your name to the publisher, who redesigns the cover with you listed as the author. This looks more like the decorative arts.
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Plenty of scope here for puns in any case. Korean publishers offer non-binding contracts… Psychoanalytic volumes? Shrink-wrapped… The wit of Seoul is brevity…
November 25th, 2015 at 7:41AM
Haven’t they learned in Korea that you cannot judge a book by its cover?!?!
November 25th, 2015 at 9:14AM
Korean academics in a bind?
Younger Korean professors take a page from older colleagues’ book?
The binds that tie Korea’s professors?
I’ll be here all week….
November 25th, 2015 at 9:18AM
The binds that tie – very nice, DRC.
November 25th, 2015 at 1:26PM
They papered over the problem.