Tmm/Befunde

Findings

• Problematic text parallels can be found in the following chapters (state of analysis: 28.04.2014):

• Introduction [beginning] (p. 2-4): pages 2, 3, 4 – [almost completely]

• SD and neurological disorders (p. 4-10): pages 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 – [completely]
• Propagation of SD (p. 10-13): pages 10, 11, 12, 13 – [completely]
• Material and methods (p. 14): page 14 – [completely (verbatim!)]
• Electrophysiological recordings (p. 14): page 14 – [completely]
• Induction of neocortical SD (p. 14-15): pages 14, 15 – [completely]
• Long-term potentiation (p. 15): page 15 – [completely]
• Experimental procedure (p. 15-16): pages 15, 16
• Statistical analysis (p. 16): page 16 – [completely (verbatim!)]

• Discussion (p. 38-41): pages 38, 39, 40, 41.

Prominent sources

• El Harrak (2009): This dissertation is the source of quite substantial text parallels and is not mentioned anywhere in the thesis. It is worth noting that El Harrak (2009) in its turn contains text copied from Herreras et al. (1994) without attribution that can also be found in the thesis studied here. This original source most likely is the reason, why some references to the literature appear to be very old, see Fragment 011 04.
• Granz (2009): The first 9 pages of the introduction are taken from this source almost in their entirety. Altogether approximately a quarter of the thesis is copied from this source without any attribution. See for instance Fragment 010 01.
• Wernsmann et al. (2006): Substantial parts of the discussion section is taken from this source. There are several references to the source, but they are placed in the same way as many other references that have been taken from Wernsmann et al. (2006), such that the reader would never guess that most of the chapter is taken from there. See for instance Fragment 041 01.

Other observations

• The supervisor of the thesis Prof. Dr. Gorji was second examiner of the two dissertations El Harrak (2009) and Granz (2009) as well as co-author of the publication Wernsmann et al. (2006), so it would have been possible for him to spot the very substantial text parallels between the dissertation Tmm (2011) and those sources.
• The second examiner of the thesis Prof. Dr. Greiner was the supervisor of the two dissertations El Harrak (2009) and Granz (2009), so it would have been possible for him to spot the substantial text parallels between the dissertation Tmm (2011) and those sources.
• The regulations for the submission of dissertations in effect at the time demand a declaration accompanying the thesis that "die Doktorandin/ der Doktorand sie nur unter Benutzung der im Literaturverzeichnis angegebenen Quellen angefertigt hat und sonst kein anderes gedrucktes oder ungedrucktes Material verwendet wurde" (§2 (1) 4.)
• It seems surprising that a doctoral degree in dentistry ("doctor medicinae dentium" according to cover page) is granted for a thesis studying neural mechanisms in the brain.
• There are other dissertations that have been supervised by Prof. Dr. Gorji and that show text parallels with Tmm (2011). But as these dissertations share the same text parallels also with Granz (2009) or El Harrak (2009), only Granz (2009) and El Harrak (2009) have been documented as sources for Tmm (2011). The dissertations with text parallels are:
  • Sheikh (2009)
  • Marschollek (2010)
  • Haarmann (2009)

Statistics

• Currently there are 24 reviewed fragments documented that are considered to be violations of citation rules. For 20 of them there is no reference given to the source used („Verschleierungen“ and „Komplettplagiate“). For 4 fragments the source is given, but the extent of the used text is not made clear („Bauernopfer“).
• The publication has 40 pages that have been analyzed. On a total of 19 of these pages violations of citation rules have been documented. This represents a percentage of 47.5%. The 40 analyzed pages break down with respect to the amount of text parallels encountered as follows:

Percentage text parallels	Number of pages
No text parallels documented	21
0%-50% text parallels	1
50%-75% text parallels	1
75%-100% text parallels	17

From these statistics an extrapolation of the amount of text of the publication under investigation that has been documented as problematic can be estimated (conservatively) as about 36% of the main part of the publication.

• In all, text was taken from 4 sources.

Illustration

The following chart illustrates the extent and the distribution of the text parallels found. The colours show the type of violation of citation rules diagnosed:

• grau="Komplettplagiat" (copy & paste): the source of the text parallel is not given, the copy is verbatim.
• rot="Verschleierung" (disguised copy): the source of the text parallel is not given, the copied text will be somewhat modified.
• gelb="Bauernopfer" (pawn sacrifice): the source of the text parallel is mentioned, but the extent and/or the closeness of the copy to the source is not made clear by the reference.

(state of analysis: 28.04.2014)