German economist Christian Roehl, one of the authors whose book Czech university professor Martin Svoboda allegedly copied, told Czech Radio (CRo) Wednesday that Svoboda was one of the authors of the book and no plagiarist.
Svoboda was accused of plagiarism and forced to resign from the post of dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Brno’s Masaryk University on Tuesday.
Zdenek Rucka, member of the faculty’s academic senate, said Svoboda published two books as his own works in the past years but they were actually mere translations of the German work Generation Zertifikate – Die Emanzipation der Geldanlage by Roehl and Werner Heussinger.
The book by Roehl and Heussinger was issued in 2004 and Svoboda is mentioned in the acknowledgements. Svoboda published both Czech books a year later and he does not mention Roehl and Heussinger anywhere in them.
Roehl told Czech Radio that Svoboda is one of the authors of the book. The three authors had agreed that while in Germany the book would be issued under Heussinger and Roehl’s name, in the Czech Republic Svoboda would be its official author, Roehl said…