So you where caught plagiarizing in your doctoral thesis... how should you react now? A short overview and explanation of different behaviour.

1. Caught plagiarizing...
... now what?
Short overview and explanation of different
behaviour by scientific fraudsters
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

2. Deny /
ridicule the accusation
“The accusation that my dissertation
was plagiarized is absurd.” (Guttenberg)
Rather bad. Also works only if you
have read your thesis and know it.
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

3. Play down
“I am willing to check within the 1,200 footnotes
and 475 pages for footnotes that are not set
correctly, and [then] would consider this for a
reprint of the thesis.” (Guttenberg)
Might work. But you shouldn’t try this
approach if there is plagiarism on ~95%
of all pages.
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

4. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
Tim Bartel PolitCamp 11, 5. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

5. “The others are to blame”
• Examiners (Koch-Mehrin)
• Family (Guttenberg)
• Dead soldiers (Guttenberg)
Blaming others always looks bad. You’re not going
to win with this strategy.
Alternative: Don’t write a thesis at all.
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

6. Waive your PhD
• Weaker version:
“Let it rest temporarily”
• Guttenberg
• Pröfrock
• Brinkmann (sent back his certificate)
The university is conferring a doctorate and collects it
again. You can’t decide by yourself that you suddenly
don’t want to have it anymore.
(But at first it makes a good impression...)
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

7. Creative defense
• Invent a new citation style (Chatzimarkakis):
“Citations in the text, not indented and without quotation
marks, identified by footnotes.
This creates room for speculation. I have
therefore explicitly informed the University
Bonn about the citation style used by me.”
Works at most with people who
never had casual contact with academic
knowledge.
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

8. Legal steps
• Saß
• Koch-Mehrin
Please...
Not if you take doctorates from
“nobodies” and kick them out for
doing way less.
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

9. Impute denunciation
• With VroniPlag denunciation protected by
anonymity of the Internet, it has apparently
become a socially accepted sport (according
to Alvaro).
“Who publicly pillories others and prejudges them
has to do so in the open” demands the liberal.
• If you don‘t have any factual arguments left...
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

10. Nice reactions
“Good day,
Haven’t you done enough damage already? There is nothing more
disgusting as you informers. I do not know what you do exactly
but if you spend so much time trying to denounce others, it seems
that you‘re not getting along with your own life. Better get a job
and earn money to pay taxes. You are the old man who lurks on
the street, waiting for people to park incorrectly so you can press charges against
them. People like you should be gassed, then our society would
be way better.
Unfriendly greetings”
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

11. Nice reactions
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

12. Leaving the country...
... is, of course, another possibility.
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011

13. Possible alternatives
• What I would like to see for a change:
• Admit
• Show remorse
• Excuse
• Redo your degree
Tim Bartel (Wikia) Webmontag Köln, 20. Juni 2011
Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2011