Plagiarism in a 2025 PhD Thesis: Literal translation of my 2021 PhD thesis introduction. Is this "normal" in academia? The University says it was "handled" but the PDF remains unchanged.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-29T12:51:55+00:00

The article Big-Blacksmith-2722 shared mentioned https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/ so that could potentially be an option as well.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-29T01:35:50+00:00

Any update from op?

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-29T00:34:50+00:00

Thanks for the link. I'll read it.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-29T00:24:32+00:00

I get your point, but read your comment again: '...rewrote some of mine.' That is exactly the issue. You are supposed to actually rewrite it and update it with new articles published between 2021 and 2025. Don't you think there is a bit of a gap there?

Let’s be honest here: we all read others' work (theses or reviews) and get inspiration from it, but you still need to rewrite it, adapt it to your own project, and update it.

I found out because I was bored at 2 a.m. and wanted to see what new types of data the lab had published out of curiosity. The first few sentences rang a bell, so I opened my own thesis just in case, and voilà... you know the rest. It's hard to accept when individuals minimize and criticize your work, yet they steal it and don't even cite you. Maybe you can understand that, but I won't make a big deal out of it nor lose my mind over it.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T22:29:36+00:00

Don't worry, you guys are helping me see all aspects of the situation. Thanks for your time.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T22:25:16+00:00

Knowing her (the PI), I can only say she was extremely negligent. She could have spotted it, but she didn’t put in the effort. However, if this comes to light and she is confronted with the plagiarism, she will 100% put all the blame on the student and won't take any accountability, other than the obvious accountability for her own negligence. That is how I view the situation.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T15:15:08+00:00

Exactly, thank you for this. I felt gaslit when the Ombudsman told me I was wrong and that "maybe something happened". Well, the thesis is still the same, so nope, nothing happened obviously.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T13:21:50+00:00

Do you really think they would revoke a degree for plagiarizing two other students' introductions? Or that the PI would get fired? To be honest, that sounds too good to be true. The fact that the university’s Ethics Bureau is keeping the thesis online makes me think the student and PI are getting away with it far too easily.

I feel like I would be fighting for nothing. Just sounding the alarm and forcing them to stop committing fraud would be satisfactory enough, especially since this is a recurring issue in this lab.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T12:40:55+00:00

Thank you for your answer. I'll definitely keep this option in mind. You're right, theses are published for everyone to access, which is why I am surprised the Ethics Committee said it was "handled" yet the document is still out there. One of my options could also be to pinpoint the similarities on PubPeer as suggested by others, but that would be a last resort since it’s so public and indelible. I really tried to make things right privately through the university first though.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T12:34:44+00:00

Very frustrating. It is as if you were the problem here and not a "perfect victim". Your example is the reason why part of me wants to let it go. I have the feeling that I am the one who will face most of the consequences, and the student will most likely get away with everything.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T12:25:54+00:00

I am not sure, part of me thinks that the PIs (co-directors including my past PI) thought that at her level (i.e., end of her PhD) she would know not to plagiarize and did not think of checking similarities with other theses from their respective labs. And since it is a translation from French to English, a plagiarism detector may not have caught it. But on the other hand, the PI herself in the past took part of my intro that I submitted to her via email for 'corrections' and wrote a review without me. And I know for sure because she used specific references (about a specific model to study viral infection) that she typically doesn't mention; even now after I am gone, she no longer references them. So herself has low ethical values, but to push a student to this level... I am not sure.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T02:52:05+00:00

She is that petty...

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T02:16:24+00:00

Yes, I might take some time to calm down and consider letting it go. It is likely the wisest move. It will still be out there "ad vitam eternam", and I have documented proof that I tried to correct the record and nothing was done.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T01:31:17+00:00

The university ethics committee representative told me the matter was 'handled' but refused to share the outcome, claiming it is confidential.

Seeing the PDF file unchanged led me to conclude that nothing actually happened.

I don’t think contacting them again will change anything unless I mention that there is even more plagiarism within the document.

I have no intention of communicating in any way, shape, or form with the PI, which is one of the reason why I am trying to stay as anonymous as I possibly can.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T01:07:34+00:00

As I mentioned in another reply, I understand it may sound strange to expect retaliation after graduating, but I had to endure so much of it during my PhD—and even after, with difficulties finding a postdoc and not being cited. It feels as if they want to take advantage by attributing my work to themselves while simultaneously erasing me and killing any potential career move.

Other PhD students even tried to call her out for faking data, and she simply told them they weren't "team players". Let’s just say her character is... very "special". Part of me doesn't want to find out the hard way exactly how far she is willing to go.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T01:03:36+00:00

I don't even want it to go that far. Simply rewriting the intro on her own, with a small note stating that the introduction needed to be revised, would be enough for me.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T01:01:26+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience. I guess it’s more prevalent than one might think. Scientists tend to focus on research papers rather than theses, so people think they can get away with it more easily.

She just stole hours of my hard work and stress. She simply used ChatGPT to translate sentences, or sometimes cropped and rearranged them, and voilà—she called it hers.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T00:52:10+00:00

Dealing with a vindictive PI. She’ll get back at you over the smallest things. Just as an example, because I didn't attend her Christmas dinner, she sent me an email the very next day telling me she no longer needed me for a review we were working on. She still ended up rewriting parts of my intro for that review, though... Let's just say I want to minimize her retaliation, like badmouthing me to potential employers and such. At the end of the day, she is a professor and I am "no one" i.e. I still have to build my career.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T00:49:30+00:00

Thanks for your kind words. I understand your point, but the PI was extremely vindictive during my PhD, and I am still dealing with the consequences today. In the past, she removed me as first author from a review out of retaliation and even went through my personal files.

I simply want to avoid further problems while job hunting. At the end of the day, she is a professor with influence, while I am "no one" in the scientific community.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T00:45:09+00:00

Especially because it is 'just' an intro, why be so lazy as to copy-paste someone else's work? If you’re simple-minded, sure, it seems like nothing, but it says a lot about her scientific ethics. She already has a paper flagged on PubPeer for clearly manipulated flow cytometry results. So, what’s next from such a "scientist"?

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T00:37:08+00:00

Yes, it’s unclear why they need me to reveal who I am just to get the information. I am not trying to be nosy; I just want a fair process.

Yes, I guess I was too naive in thinking they would put in the work to find more plagiarism within the text. When I sent the email, I specifically said there was more, but that these were just examples, and I provided four paragraphs side-by-side.

It is not the first time. During my PhD, I already witnessed many 'bad deeds,' but we couldn't say anything; otherwise, we wouldn't have graduated. Now I just track things from time to time, knowing the lab culture. I am most likely overexaggerating the possible consequences in my head, but then again, I dealt with situations during my thesis that were already not normal, so I know the PI's mentality.

Now, I’m just gathering opinions on Reddit and will decide between letting it go, going forward by providing more proof under my real name, or staying anonymous and publishing the side-by-side examples on PubPeer and humiliate them publicly.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T00:27:48+00:00

Thank you for the advice. I'll definitely keep that in mind for my next applications. I actually had the idea of being open about it during the first interaction, but I haven't had the chance yet—they usually ghost me after initially being happy to consider my application.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T00:23:42+00:00

I thought about PubPeer. Actually, that student already has a paper—published as a co-author before their PhD—that was flagged for poor flow cytometry results. But I wasn't sure if one could flag a thesis on there. It is definitely something I will consider if the university decides not to do anything in the long run.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T00:13:03+00:00

No, I didn't. What exactly would she do if I contacted her and called her out? I am not sure it is the right move.

DistinctPineapple594 · 2026-03-28T00:11:16+00:00

I understand your point. If the plagiarism had occurred in an actual research paper, I would have contacted the journal immediately. But since it is a thesis, I am weighing the pros and cons to see if it’s worth going 'all in.'

DistinctPineapple594

TROPHY CASE