NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS CLOSEOUT NIEMORANDUM The plagiarism in this case consisted of a short paragraph of verbatim text taken from a chapter written by the subject's (deceased) Ph.D. advisor, and used in the subject's' proposal to NSF.~ The source document reference3was included in the list of references, but no direct citation was given. The subject was involved with the work described in the article, but not listed as an author on that chapter; his own chapter immediately precedes the source document chapter in the edited volume. The text cited is a summary of the research field, and the subject plausibly asserts that he has used this and similar words repetitively in multiple documents. The absence of a direct citation is an omission admitted by the subject. We composed a letter to the subject with a reminder of the need for proper scholarship in proposals submitted to NSF. Accordingly, this case is closed. NSF OIG Form 2 ( 1 1/02)
Plagiarism (Verbatim)
Published by the National Science Foundation, Office of Inspector General on 2006-04-11.
Below is a raw (and likely hideous) rendition of the original report. (PDF)