Copying Others’ Work: Two teachers of Pabna univ accused
Two assistant professors of Pabna University of Science and Technology have allegedly plagiarised from a book in their joint paper published in an academic journal last month.
Editors of the book requested the University Grants Commission (UGC) and Pabna University of Science and Technology (PUST) recently to take action against the teachers.
Assistant professors Awal Kabir of the social work department and Yahia Bapari of the economics department have allegedly copied almost an entire chapter of a book.
The book they allegedly copied from is titled Engaging in Educational Research: Revisiting Policy and Practice in Bangladesh. Four Bangladeshi teachers are editors of the book published in 2018 by Springer.
The two PUST teachers' article titled "Evolving Realities and Changing Perspectives: A Study of Education System in Bangladesh" was submitted to Science Publishing Group on March 28 this year.
It was accepted on April 12 and published in an academic journal on April 23. Amid allegations of plagiarism, the publisher took it down from its website.
The incident took place only two months after three Dhaka University teachers were demoted over plagiarism.
It was evident in an examination of both the papers that the article by Awal and Yahia was plagiarised from the abstract to conclusion to references of the first chapter of the aforesaid book.
Some of the words were replaced with synonyms and there were paraphrases of the original text written by Raqib Chowdhury and Mahbub Sarkar of Monash University, Australia.
The first line of the book's introduction says, "Inevitably, and in response to worldwide reverberations of globalisation, internationalisation and free trade movements and increased transnational migration of academics around the world, Bangladesh has witnessed major changes in its educational scenario over the past decade."
The article by Kabir and Yahia reads, "Certainly, in response to the worldwide repercussions of globalisation, internationalization and free trade movements, as well as the increase in cross-border migration of academic circles throughout the whole world, Bangladesh as an emerging developing nation has experienced many striking changes in the educational condition during the last decade."
On May 10, Raqib of Monash University sent an email to PUST Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr M Rostom Ali about the matter.
"We've recently came across a serious plagiarism issue encountered in an article that was recently published in the education journal … we're deeply concerned about this publication since we believe it has breached our intellectual property in the grossest manner. The paper has copied almost everything from our published work: Education in Bangladesh: Challenging Contexts and Emerging Realities," reads the email.
The PUST VC advised the writers to file a complaint with the UGC.
In a later email, Raqib requested the PUST authorities to take disciplinary action against the two teachers.
In reply, Prof Rostom said action would be taken after the UGC issues an instruction.
Contacted, Yahia said he was not aware that the article bore his name. "It was uploaded without my consent too. When it came to my notice, I wrote to [the publisher] to withdraw the paper from the site."
Kabir said, "We were working on it [the article]. It was not meant to be published.
"The article is deleted and we're not claiming [the credit of] the article anymore. We'll further work on it and publish it."
Contacted, Prof Rostom said the university administration will form a committee to look into the matter after the summer vacation.
UGC Chairman Prof Dr Kazi Shahidullah said, "I've received the allegation. The probe committee will look into the matter. If found guilty, strict action will be taken [against them]."
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