Looking at Plagiarism in Latin American Science through the Perception of Brazilian Scientists: Preliminary Results from a Focus Group Project

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Looking at Plagiarism in Latin American Science
through the Perception of Brazilian Scientists
Preliminary Results from a Focus Group Project

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This presentation is based on the results from my
PhD, focused on scientometric, linguistic and
cultural factors involved in the publication
output of Brazilian researchers (October, 2008),
which led to a recently accepted publication in
Embo Reports entitled Discussing Plagiarism in
Latin American Science Behind the Times? by
Sonia Vasconcelos Jacqueline Leta, Lídia Costa,
André Pinto and Martha Sorenson.
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Co-authors Martha Sorenson and Jacqueline Leta
- Science Education Program/ Medical Biochemistry
Institute- Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
(UFRJ) Lidia Costa Catalysis Center- National
Institute of Technology (INT) Andre Pinto
Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department -
Miliary Institute of Engineering (IME)
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Brazilian Science
Compared to other Latin American countries,
Brazil is the regions giant in every sense of
the word and has the most sophisticated and
diversified science, technology and innovation
system (Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Canada, 2008). The country has the highest
proportion of its gross domestic product (GDP)
invested in research and development (The World
Bank, 2007)... In 2005, Brazilian authors were
responsible for almost 45 of articles from Latin
America published in journals indexed in the
Thomson Reuters database, (Brazilian Ministry of
Science and Technology, 2002) and Brazil has more
journals indexed in Medline than any other Latin
American country (Piccoli Procianoy, 2007).
(Vasconcelos, SMR, 2008)
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Growth of Brazilian Science (1981-2006)
30.451 in 2008
Source Thomson Reuters. National Science
IndicatorsBrazilian Ministry of Science and
Technology, 18 Sep 2007. http//www.mct.gov.br/ind
ex.php/content/view/9256.html
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Brazilian Science in Latin America
Source Thomson Reuters. National Science
IndicatorsBrazilian Ministry of Science and
Technology, 18 Sep 2007. http//www.mct.gov.br/ind
ex.php/content/view/9257.html
Sonia M.R.Vasconcelos
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The growing competition in Brazilian science
rites of passage, stress and burnout (Braz J Med
Biol Res, 2003)
Brazil's scientific community is under pressure.
Each year there is an increase in its
contribution to international science and in the
number of students who are trained to do research
and teach at an advanced level. Most of these
activities are carried out in state and federal
universities... Interviews with graduate
students, post-doctoral fellows and professors in
one university department with a strong research
tradition illustrate the level of stress
engendered by the conflict between increasing
competition and diminishing resources, and serve
to underscore the negative effects on creativity
and on the tendency to choose science as a
career.
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The growing competition in Brazilian science
rites of passage, stress and burnout (Braz J Med
Biol Res, 2003)
Cited by others working on mental health
Focus on mental health
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The mental health of graduate students at the
Federal University of São Paulo a preliminary
report (Braz J Med Biol Res, 2003)
If we consider the expressive growth in
Brazilian scientific production resulting from
the implementation of an extensive national
system of graduate education, it is important to
focus efforts on enhancing and upgrading the
mental health care system .
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Whither Latin America? Trends and challenges of
science in Latin America (IUBMB Life, 2007)
...need to establish effective policies to
increase competitiveness in terms of the quality
and international recognition of Latin American
natural sciences in general, and BMB
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in
particular, as opposed to merely increasing the
absolute numbers of publications or the numbers
of PhDs awarded in the region.
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Ethical aspects of doing and publishing research
in Latin American science Taken for granted???
What do 16 Brazilian senior researchers from
leading public institutions say about
plagiarism, for example?
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Our Focus Group Interviews
Focusing on Plagiarism and Redundancy
Plagiarism among Graduate Students
Linguistic Competence
Plagiarism and the Publish or Perish Culture
Perceptions of Plagiarism
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Our Focus Group Interviews
Focusing on Plagiarism and Redundancy

• Research Questions
• Does lack of linguistic competence make
  researchers more tolerant of plagiarism?
• What are these researchers perceptions of
  plagiarism in science?
• Is the American concept of plagiarism clear cut
  among these respondents?
• How familiar are these researchers with recent
  integrity policies established by the US and
  European countries?

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Linguistic Competence
Among the 16 researchers interviewed, 12
expressed a positive assessment of their writing
competence in English. Some of the comments were
as follows ...I spent many years abroad during
my PhD, which helped me a lotmy competence in
writing was developed during my PhDConcerning
manuscripts, I do everything but I only derive
intellectual pleasure out of writing the
discussionthe other sessions are rather boring
and take up a lot of time ...I dont have
much trouble to communicate in English, to read
or writesometimes I feel the need for more skill
than I have, and I send it the manuscript to a
language editor, but not usually. I write it and
each colleague in my group tries to correct the
text a little bit... Four participants,
however, did not have a positive opinion about
their linguistic competence in writing I
think my English proficiency is reasonable,
although I dont like writing. Definitely, among
all my tasks as a professor and researcher,
writing is what I like the least it makes me
uncomfortable that writing up research has almost
become our reason for being in science. My
linguistic competence is horrible Ive never
studied English. I started to study English when
I was at universityI would use a dictionary to
check everything and wasted a lot of time When
writing manuscripts I transfer the job to my
collaborators. I give them an outline of the main
points and they give me some feedbackIm an
experimentalist, my time is in the lab and I
dont like wasting time writing
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Linguistic Competence
22, 900 researchers
Complementary cumulative distribution function of
researchers with different writing competences,
good (black squares), reasonable (red circles)
and poor (green triangles), according to number
of papers.
Complementary cumulative distribution function of
researchers with different writing competences,
good (black squares), reasonable (red circles)
and poor (green triangles), according to number
of citations.
(Vasconcelos SMR, Batista, PD, Santanna, MC,
Sorenson M, Leta J, Embo Rep, 2008)
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Perceptions of Plagiarism
The concept of plagiarism appeared to be
rather ill-defined among our respondents. Among
the 16 participants, only two expressed the full
definition of plagiarism, that is, including not
only the use of someone elses ideas and results
without attribution but also inappropriate
textual borrowing Most respondents considered
that textual plagiarism in science would be a
less serious offense than copying data. In a
recent article, Bouville claims that copying a
few sentences that contain no original idea (e.g.
in the introduction) is of marginal importance
compared to stealing the ideas of others.
To me, plagiarism is results, copying
results...this already happened several times
You talk to somebody about the results you
obtained and the person ends up developing the
sameThis is plagiarism. The same idea you had
the person develops, right? Ideas this is
plagiarism. Only ideasI have my doubts about the
text To me, plagiarism in science is
copying results, for sure ... Plagiarism in an
article is... When you copy and paste an
excerpt sentence larger than six, seven or
eight words. I think you shouldnt do that.
Well, I dont see it quite the same way. Apart
from copying resultsI mean if only results are
results that are a little bit
different from the original. You then work on
the same text and only change the results To
me, this is plagiarism.
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This view was also expressed by Brazilian
physics researchers accused by their colleagues
of inappropriate textual borrowing in
publications in Physics Review C (2007). From the
perspective of some of the scientists involved in
that case, their borrowing paragraphs from others
without attribution was an editorial problem, not
plagiarism.
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Plagiarism among Graduate Students
A student asked me to review her thesis.
Sure, I was very happy to do soIt came to a
point where I thought I know this style "And I
went on readingfive, six pages from my own
thesis! Had she copied that from someone elses
writing?...Ive never met a situation like that
the really strange thing is that I talked to her
thesis advisor, who considered the whole issue
trivial   I dont carea paragraph from my
thesis a student copying not the whole
thesisbut some paragraphs, I dont
careMaterials and methods? Students always
copy and paste from other students ...my
impression is that they students read less
andthey read only thesis-related issuesthey
limit themselvesI think this can lead to
plagiarism   generally, students do not write
well many are poor and could not attend an
English course before entering university. What
do we have to do? Write for them? When you tell
them to do their own writing, many copy and
paste.
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Plagiarism among Graduate Students
generally, Brazilian students do not write
well many are poor and could not attend an
English course before entering university. What
do we have to do? Write for them? When you tell
them to do their own writing, many copy and
paste.
Plagiarism? No, we're just borrowing better
English ! (Correspondence, Nature 449, 658,
October 2007)
Many such authors succumb to the temptation to
use eloquent phrases, sentences or even whole
paragraphs found in recently published papers in
order to improve their own work. (Editorial,
Biomaterials, Jun 2007)
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Plagiarism and the Publish or PerishCulture
In a letter published in the Bulletin of the
Brazilian Physics Society, a Brazilian scientist
expressed his concern about the effects of the
mechanics of counting papers on the Brazilian
research environment (Oliveira, 2006). In his
view, the current assessment of contribution to
science on a numerical basis may have detrimental
effects on this environment and lead to unethical
behavior in the Brazilian scientific community.
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Plagiarism and the Publish or Perish Culture
We noted the same feeling in the following
comments from our focus groups I
think...publications, the demand for producing
texts and patentswere overwhelmed by the
mechanics of being productive its something
mechanical, and we end upaccepting things that
used to be unethical but that have now become
acceptable.   ...this pressure for numbers and
demand for quantity that has increased in the
research environmentpeople do not have time to
consider what makes a real contribution to
science this mathematization looks at
productivity from a numerical perspective.
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Concluding Remarks
So far, plagiarism, especially textual plagiarism
in science, was not a clear clear cut issue
among senior researchers participating in the
focus groups. We doubt that a different scenario
would be found for larger groups of researchers
from the same institutions.
Considering that Brazilian science has today the
most promising research system, with more
visibility in terms of worlds science, these
responses may be similiar for most Latin American
countries.
Time to introduce the discussion on research
integrity in Latin American countries The
Brazilian research community should be a good
starting point.
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Post Doc Project

• Postdoc project Developing Research Integrity
  Policies for Graduate Students at the Chemical
  Engineering Program at COPPE (Graduate School of
  Research and Engineering)
• Submitted for IRB Approval

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Muito obrigada!