[INDOLOGY] corrected version: Indology and plagiarism: specify stance in order to fortify "brand name" (and conclude lengthy threads)

[Dipak Bhattacharya]

Dear Colleagues,
I may relate a similar experience with a much more low profile book by
me -*-Mythological
and rirtual symbolism* 1984 Calcutta. The fourth and fifth chapters (194 -
208) were verbatim copied without any acknowledgement or reference to my
work in a book published by a reputed publisher of Delhi. I wrote to them,
they did not reply. My solicitor advised purchasing a copy for production
if I wanted to start legal proceedings. I wanted to purchase. Again, the
publishers were silent. In the mean time my book went out of print.
It requires so much energy and resources to carry on legal proceedings that
one engaged in work often gives up.
With best wishes for all and collegial sympathy for co-sufferers.

DB


On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 1:50 AM, Jan E.M. Houben <jemhouben at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Indology and plagiarism
>
> Apart from borderline cases there are also cases of undeniable massive
> plagiarism.
> One case was discussed long ago by Roy Andrew Miller (JAOS 115.2 [1995]:
> 343-344), and
> a new episode in the same case history was discussed eight years later,
> now twelve years
> ago, by me (AS/EA 57.1 [2003] p 163, author's copy academia.edu/7196478/
> p 55).
> From a quick online search I infer that the publication based on massive
> plagiarizing is apparently still for sale and present in university
> libraries.
> Some similarities with the current case under discussion, except, I hope,
> quantitatively:
> R Diekstra, till 1997 prof of psychology at Univ of Leiden: those who
> discovered textual
> borrowings which were not or very incompletely acknowledged were
> aggressively attacked by a
> dherents of their favourite public intellectual Diekstra, his sources were
> (page after page)
> from sources relatively unknown to his target public (dutch readers on
> psychotherapy), he
> claimed to be working in haste for a higher aim (helping those needing
> psychotherapy).
> http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9704/fn9704.html
>
> This could be a suitable occasion for the Indology List, the ONLY ONLINE
> FORUM IN THE WORLD
> since 2001 specializing in academic exchange for bona fide scholars,
> "east"
> and "west", in Indology and classical South Asia studies, to give a
> stronger profile
> to Indology's "brand name".
>
> Would there be any harm if the current dvārapālas of the Indology List
> specify
> "Indology"'s position on plagiarism in the Guidelines, for instance that
> the
> hypothetic case of plagiarizing (at least if it is massive?) leads to
> cancellation
> of full membership (should have been self-evident but perhaps it is not),
> and that
> emphatic encouragement and condoning of plagiarism leads to first a
> warning next to
> suspension of full membership? Pro-plagiarists and those in favour of
> plagiarism
> leniency may feel irritated through such explicit stance but 95% others
> would either
> welcome it or consider it self-evident.
>
> This move could liberate bandwidth of the List for more useful and
> interesting topics and
> issues.
>
> Jan Houben
>
>
>
>
>
> *Jan E.M. HOUBEN*
>
> Directeur d’Études
>
> Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite
>
> *École Pratique des Hautes Études*
>
> *Sciences historiques et philologiques *
>
> 54, rue Saint-Jacques
>
> CS 20525 – 75005 Paris
>
> johannes.houben at ephe.sorbonne.fr
>
> https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
>
> www.ephe.fr
>
>
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