CAIRO: For many university professors and researchers in Egypt, the typically grueling process of submitting a research paper is simplified to writing a keyword in an online search engine, copying an already published paper and submitting it under their name.
With lax rules governing plagiarism in Egyptian universities – sometimes none at all – and the academic advancement of known plagiarizers, the practice has thrived over the years.
Knowing that their professors have gotten away with it, many students find nothing wrong with submitting plagiarized papers or graduation projects, facilitated by easy access to the internet and the many offices specialized in writing master s and PhD theses for money.
One of the famous – or rather infamous – plagiarism cases involved an Alexandria University professor who submitted seven research papers in 2004 to the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Journal.
The editor of the journal called the university’s vice president to complain that the seven submissions were replicas of papers published in other international journals.
The papers were part of the professor’s required work to earn a degree.
Two years later, in 2006, the same professor presented a list of eight research papers, four of which were found to be mere copies of previously published research. The other four were found to be scientifically weak.
Unlike similar cases, he didn’t get the degree.
Ironically, this incident was the reason that led the Egyptian Group for Surgical Science and Research to launch what is now known as the Alexandria Initiative on Scientific Misconduct: Plagiarism. The initiative recommended using awareness campaigns and preventive measures rather than punitive strategies to eradicate what has become the commonplace practice of plagiarism.
However there is little evidence that such effort has paid off.
Recently in Mansoura University’s faculty of arts, French language section, the scientific committee found that five research papers presented by a professor were heavily plagiarized. A detailed report was prepared and presented to the Higher Council of Universities, which ignored the report and gave the professor the degree she sought.
Another professor announced that he is offering a new service: preparing research papers for master and PhD students. The former sells for LE 20,000-40,000 while a PhD dissertation costs LE 40,000-60,000, depending on the topic.
Typically, these professors operate centers equipped with a staff of young researchers, who work on papers that are later sold in Egypt and even in Gulf countries.
One professor at Helwan University, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Daily News Egypt of another professor who failed twice in getting his degree, and then opted to claim the work of one of his students as his own.
The students’ complaints to university officials were ignored, and the scientific committee granted the professor the degree.
“When junior staff uncovers an incident of plagiarism by a more powerful professor, they are afraid to report it because they can be penalized and prevented from getting their degrees, the professor said.
According to a study by Dr Mohamed Abul Ghar, a professor at the faculty of medicine, out of 39 governmental and private universities and 150,000 academics working in them, very few can be called scientists.
Only 10 percent of 400,000 research projects conducted since 1963 in Egyptian universities were published in international journals.
Abul Ghar is also a member of the University Autonomy Group, popularly known as the March 9 Movement – a group of Cairo University professors who came together in March 2003 to protest the US invasion of Iraq and who now press for university autonomy and academic freedom.
Meanwhile, Cairo University is nowhere to be found on the list of the top 500 universities in the world. It was ranked 28 among African countries, the citizens of which at one point, could only dream of studying there.
The ranking changed only after the university added Nobel Prize winners Naguib Mahfouz and Mohamed ElBaradei among its list of scholars.
Under university bylaws, mechanisms used for detecting plagiarism are weak and complicated. They aren’t seriously enforced and are sometimes non-existent.
For example, one regulation consistently ignored requires researchers to have their papers reviewed by 14 universities to avoid repeating studies.
Nowadays, detecting plagiarism is easier with the introduction of computer software and internet sites such as Turnitin.com, which checks submitted papers against a database of research and studies, and highlights the percentage of plagiarism.
Anti-plagiarism policies are not completely non-existent in Egypt, though.
The American University in Cairo’s (AUC) department of rhetoric and composition routinely check papers for plagiarism. Penalties range from failing the course to expulsion.
AUC s curriculum includes courses in the writing program to teach students how to avoid different kinds of plagiarism, starting with basic citation principles.
Professors involved in plagiarism incidents may face permanent dismissal.
“Plagiarism is a very serious problem. Unfortunately it can’t be solved in Egyptian universities because it is dependent on the personnel working at the university, said Dr Metwally El Sayed, director of the research department at Cairo University.
“Punishment laws are weak and aren’t punitive enough. We need legislation from the People s Assembly to solve this problem, El Sayed said.
“The worst thing that can happen is to ban the professor from giving lectures for one year, he added, explaining that the accused professor is kept on the payroll in the meantime.
According to El Sayed, a committee was formed by the university administration to monitor and combat plagiarism.
He claims that the committee members did not and “will not hold a single meeting because they are, in one way or another, taking advantage of the current situation.
One employee at the research department, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that a researcher at the faculty of physical therapy at Cairo University registered the proposal of his masters’ degree and then traveled abroad for one month. He returned to find his research paper had been completed by someone else.
“They told him she [the other researcher who stole his proposal] isn’t as good as you and then they helped him finish his research in three days, the employee said.
“Sometimes researchers plagiarize from themselves by re-using old research papers to earn more degrees, she added
As universities mainly ignore cases of plagiarism among the faculty, it’s no surprise that there isn’t much attention to undergraduate students’ research and projects.
Although there are no available statistics – plagiarism is apparently not a topic worth investigating – it’s not far-fetched to say that students, in absence of proper role models, find it easier and normal to plagiarize their research papers and projects.
In an effort to solve the problem, there are suggestions of establishing an encyclopedia that includes research conducted at all universities that would act as a reliable database to help detect plagiarism.
