Je ne peux pas l’aider. Je LOVE plagiarism stories.
No, not all plagiarism stories. Your garden variety undergrad grab is a yawn.
BUT.
Give me certains éléments de l’intrigue… give me une histoire particulière … give me things that permettant d’opposer les termes de « hétérodiégétique » et « homodiégétique » (ou « autodiégétique » si tel est le cas); pour le second critère, il s’agit du niveau narratif du narrateur. Cette dernière distinction met en exergue les termes de « extradiégétique » et « intradiégétique » … and of course I am in heaven.
The case of Prof. Dr. Rene Lafreniere of the University of Calgary has everything UD loves in a plagiarism story:
The plagiarized article lectures us about ethics. The plagiarism is committed by heap big chief researcher who refuses to say anything about the matter and goes entirely unpunished. The plagiarism is discovered by an anonymous unimportant “sharp-eyed student,” who goes and tells the plagiarized author, who complains to the journal, which retracts the thing.
But what UD also loves about this species of plagiarism story is that no one is talking. The ethics report had four authors, with Lafreniere singled out as the plagiarist. But the journal editors, the publisher, the university, the authors – nobody’s saying a thing. Let’s all step lightly over this stinking turd and go back to the lab.
Well, one guy – a philosopher at the University of Illinois – has been willing to eke out a statement. He doesn’t take a stand on the matter pro or con, but he does narrate what I just narrated. I mean the thing about the sharp-eyed student.
Why does he say only this? Why doesn’t he condemn the man who stuck his toes into the turd? Why don’t the other two authors do this? Wouldn’t you be pissed off? Eager to dissociate yourself from Dr. Tartuffe?
The same year [as the plagiarism], the University of Calgary’s medical school feted Lafreniere, creating the “Rene Lafreniere Lectureship” to recognize his “13 years of outstanding leadership as department head.”
Okay fine yes it’s embarrassing. The man is busy and does what tons of busy people asked to put their names on things do – he finds someone else to do the work for him, and then he affixes his precious signature. I mean, probably there are layers and layers between Lafreniere and his plagiarism. He’s got a staff of assistants and if he’s really pushed to the wall he’ll blame them. He can’t be responsible for the plagiarism of the people he hires to do his writing for him!
The fine new blog, Retraction Watch, will no doubt be keeping an eye on this one. I’ve added its name to my Bookmarks.
February 16th, 2011 at 12:06PM
Lafreniere is up in the air.
His plagiarism wasn’t fair,
And now it’s been outed,
He’s no longer touted.
But back at the U does anyone care?
February 16th, 2011 at 8:35PM
Obviously UD is quite upset about this and uses the turd word freely.
This calls to mind my sainted grandfather, who was an immigrant Irish plumber. For some reason he always objected to the phrase: the cream rises to the top.
His rejoinder: “Sometimes turds float.”
February 16th, 2011 at 9:25PM
adam, Bill: LOL.
February 17th, 2011 at 2:30PM
Bill, the flotation of faeces is a function of their fat content. From this fact one figures Lafreniere filched from formerly famous figures the fodder that fueled his factitious fame and his formidable faculty fortune – the finished product is like what you produce after foie gras.