Re: No science in 'cut and paste'
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This is my opinion on the recent 'Opinion' posted by Mr. Rahul Siddhathan in the Hindu, on the 9th of March 2012. The original article can be read here.
After a suggestion from a friend, I spent some time writing to the Editor of the Hindu. He was kind enough to post my views in his paper. Just that my point of view was (severely) edited and can be found Ameya's Letter to the editor of Hindu or below (for those who are too lazy to click)
Below is the full text of the letter for the interested reader :
Dear Sir,
Reference to Mr. Rahul Siddharthan's 'Opinion' titled No science in 'cut and paste'.
It is disheartening to see a senior scientist being dragged into the muck of plagiarism. What is even unfortunate is that the first author, who actually did the lab work, (or atleast some work in this case and deserves recognition) is being made a victim by his superiors. One must also not forget that this is issue is not arising from a remote private university but one of the premier institutes in the country. By no means is this matter trivial and requires attention right away.
However, we need to begin right in schools where creativity and originality is being murdered every day. Rote learning of answers is encouraged and job market rejects, after a simple diploma course become role models for the future of our country. This usually continues even in colleges where assignments are just last minute copies of uncited content from the internet. In the absence of proper guidance, I am presuming it is too difficult to break a habit of 20+ years, when you have been accepted in a research institution and that is where our first author failed. Whether the idea for the paper in question was also plagiarized is an altogether different question and no single person can be blamed.
Although Mr.Rahul has already criticized Prof. Rao's contribution, or the lack of it, to the paper, I am still puzzled what prompted him to ask for the authorship status when he has almost 1500 papers to his credit. Is Prof.Rao heading for career statistics a-la Sachin Tendulkar? or is it pure abuse of his position? or was he being asked to lend his name to the paper so that it would be accepted easily? Irrespective of what the answers are to these questions, they clearly show lack of interest in the scientific activity that leads to the paper.
Readers as well as the author of the article have urged for institutional and governmental intervention when it comes to such issues. I, however, sincerely believe that the change we seek will come at a personal level. No amount of institutional correction can set right these flaws that we have. We need to motivate ourselves to conduct original research and not just repeat some one else's work and pass it as our own. As a molecular biologist, I have come across many a papers of Indian origin where the authors have repeated experiments in just a different geographical location with absolute no value addition whatsoever. The very fact, that such project proposals are funded, proves the absence of innovation when it comes to application as well as grant of public money for research.
I would like to congratulate the media, especially the Hindu for bringing this to public attention and request you to publish my opinion regarding the same in your esteemed newspaper.
Regards,
Ameya Paleja.
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