Experts have mixed opinions on plagiarism accusations against two papers University of Maryland president Darryll Pines co-authored in 2002 and 2006.
The Daily Wire, a conservative media company, alleged on Sept. 17 that Pines and his co-author plagiarized a 1,500 word-stretch of a 5,000-word paper from a website published in 1996 by Joshua Altmann, a university student in Australia at the time. Pines has since denied the allegations and vowed to undergo an independent review to evaluate the claims.
The Sept. 17 report alleged Pines and his co-author Liming Salvino did not cite Altmann’s “Surfing the Wavelets” website for two papers about structural health monitoring. Salvino was a postdoctoral researcher at this university at the time.
Altmann could not be reached for comment.
Pines wrote in a Sept. 18 email to faculty members that he does not believe The Daily Wire’s accusations have merit. In the email, Pines announced that he requested this university’s research integrity office to conduct an independent review of the claims.
“While I am steadfast that our results, data and findings are sound, I acknowledge recurrent language in the introductory sections,” Pines wrote.
While some plagiarism experts said that the allegations may be problematic for Pines, others question if Pines was politically targeted in the allegations.
Jonathan Bailey, a copyright and plagiarism consultant at the firm CopyByte, said he believes the investigation will likely conclude the text was plagiarized since “significant” portions of the paper seem to be copied from Altmann’s work.
[UMD president Darryll Pines denies plagiarism accusations]
But Bailey noted that Salvino, who currently works at Duke University’s civil and environmental engineering department, is still a considerable factor in this case. While Pines co-wrote both papers with Salvino, Bailey is unsure of each party’s contribution to the papers, he said.
“It could be that there is plagiarism here, but it’s possible president Pines didn’t do any of it,” Bailey said.
Salvino did not respond to The Diamondback’s request for comment.
Although Bailey suspects these papers may be retracted, the allegation would not necessarily be grounds for Pines to resign, as the claims were only against two papers, Bailey said.
This university referred to Pines’ Sept. 18 faculty email in response to a request for comment.
The Daily Wire’s accusations against Pines, who became this university’s first Black president in 2020, come after a series of similar plagiarism allegations levied against other prominent Black leaders at higher education institutions, which some experts cited as important context to consider.
Claudine Gay, Harvard University’s first Black president, resigned on Jan. 2 as conservative activists alleged she plagiarized parts of her 1997 doctoral dissertation.
Susan Blum, an anthropology professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the “weaponization” of plagiarism investigations must be stopped.
“To me, this indicates something other than [a] commitment to academic integrity,” Blum said. “This indicates a political determination to weaken certain people in positions of power in universities.”
Blum, who authored a book about student plagiarism in 2009, said while she does not excuse any lapses of academic citation processes, she questions why Pines is being targeted nearly two decades after his papers were published.
[Federal judge pauses UMD’s Oct. 7 event restrictions]
But for HTW Berlin computer science professor Debora Weber-Wulff, the way the plagiarism allegations came forth does not matter. It is more important to focus on the content of the work itself, she said.
Weber-Wulff, who has researched plagiarism since 2002, said though there has recently been a widespread adaptation of plagiarism-detection software, academic integrity standards were still the same two decades ago.
“It doesn’t matter who brings the allegation,” Weber-Wulf said. “If the text is identical, we have some explanations that need to be done.”
This university’s research integrity office usually takes 60 days to complete an investigation, according to its website. Once the review is completed, the results will be shared with University System of Maryland Chancellor Jay Perman, Pines said in his email on Sept. 18.
Lauran Qualkenbush, the president of the Association of Research Integrity Officers and senior director for research and integrity at Northwestern University, said each investigation is different, but there is often a common standard among plagiarism investigations at institutions.
Investigators could reach out to relevant parties or witnesses as they gather evidence of misconduct, Qualkenbush explained. Many times, the amount of text plagiarized and the section of the text can also make a difference, she said.
