Self-Plagiarism: Immorality or Carelessness!

The Seda Net website, in a piece ("Was it plagiarism that a clever man would commit?"), has accused Hojjat al-Islam Dr. Abdolhossein Khosropanah of research fraud. The author of this note, who also has a background of study in the field of ethics, has accused Dr. Khosropanah of two types of fraud: first, self-plagiarism, and second, plagiarism of others.

Regarding self-plagiarism, as the author has pointed out, no law in the country prohibits a researcher from quoting material from their own works. To ensure the absence of such a law, legal experts and authorities in the field of intellectual property were also consulted, and they confirmed the lack of such a law. If the laws of other countries are the criterion, (which, of course, the reason and rationality of this matter warrant serious reflection?) which university's or research center's regulations should be the standard? Those familiar with Western academic research know that some publishers abroad make quoting material conditional on permission from the author and publisher. Has the esteemed author ever observed this law, or is he willing to observe it? "Fraud" is a legal title whose basis must be clearly specified in law. This accusation, without citing the text of the law, will be legally actionable. Regardless of the lack of legal validity, quoting material from one's other works is also abundantly found in the writings of renowned domestic and foreign researchers. If the author has the opportunity to study, he will see that a large part of the books of Keith Lehrer, John Searle, Dr. Dinani, Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Jafari, Ayatollah Javadi Amoli are also found in their other works. We hope that in the next step, those concerned with the law and ethics of our country will also expose them. Because they have transferred money from their own pocket to another's!! Apparently, Mr. Khodaparast has not seen the collections of articles that have become books? If a university asks a renowned author on a subject to write a hundred-page book for undergraduate students, what should he do? Should he say things other than what he has previously researched so that no overlap occurs? Or should he change the verb "is" to "would be" so that it does not become self-plagiarism?

But regarding plagiarism of others, apparently, in order not to be left behind the caravan of slander, the writer did not have the opportunity to study the book properly and realize that Dr. Khosropanah, who is accused of summarizing, copying, and fraud, is not the author of the mentioned section. Rather, someone else wrote this section. Probably, they expect that in works such as collections of articles or collective research, the person whose name is on the book should check all the citations of other researchers!! Interestingly, Mr. Khodaparast has also mentioned the citations, but this amount of citation did not satisfy his opinion!! Those involved in scientific research know that citation methods do not have a clear-cut rule. Citing in every line is not considered desirable by many researchers. Especially in works chosen for teaching, the principle is to reduce citations.

In any case, the title "fraud" carries legal weight, and if not proven, it is considered an accusation and is prosecutable. What Dr. Khosropanah does with this accusation is up to him, but some other questions remain unanswered:

Why, among all these scientific questions and effective research, has the targeted fault-finding of Dr. Khosropanah's works become the goal of some?

How is it that in these critiques, no positive point has been mentioned (contrary to the usual practice of scientific criticism)?

Or why are these critiques written with so much negative emotion and anger?

Those who belong to the ethical sphere also know that destroying people's reputations and making accusations has no moral goodness in the act itself; perhaps the author wishes to rely solely on the goodness of the agent and considers his intention a sacred duty to cleanse the research environment of unworthy elements. Even though we consider the author's intention in destroying people's reputations to be good! and regard them as the price of purifying the realm of research from fraud, yet is this good intention also applied to Mr. Khodaparast's friends? Does he recall some of his own associates who encountered difficulties during promotion in these very recent years? Do those who received salaries from a research center for several years without delivering a single page also fall under these good intentions? What about those who pledge to make amends for previously received salaries by presenting research, and do not? Has Mr. Khodaparast never submitted an article whose phrases are exactly the content of his other works? Thanks to technology, pronouns no longer wander lost and find their referent!

And the final question: if someone had leveled a portion of these accusations against one of the lower-ranking figures of the intellectual movement, how would the people of ethics and the trustworthy researchers!! have treated them?

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PDF file of this article

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Self-Plagiarism: Immorality or Carelessness!

Author: Mohammad Kashizadeh, Faculty Member, Department of Theology, Institute for Culture and Islamic Thought

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