IIMA: The Sebastian Morris plagiarism complaints(s)

As the Ethical Researchers Network India investigation has discovered,  in 2012  Prof. Sebastian Morris apparently misled the preliminary enquiry committee set up by then IIMA Director Prof. Samir Barua.

The device used by Prof. Morris for this was to use an academically discredited freeware anti-plagiarism comparison software known as VIPER to generate "proof" that no plagiarism was committed by him. [http://ernet-iima.rhcloud.com/faculty-and-research/email-iim-prof-sebastian-morris-plagiarism-charges]. The Complainant had claimed
"serious instances of plagiarism"

"It is really a shame to see this mass copy-pasting from some of these senior faculties of IIM, Ahmedabad. The authors in these cases seem to have deliberately avoided mentioning any reference to the sources and provide credit to the original sources and authors."

This device was also despite the other complainant  claiming that she had detected the  "word for word copying" using TURNITIN (a professional paid anti-plagiarism detection software). [http://ernet-iima.rhcloud.com/faculty-and-research/more-cases-plagiarism-iima-publications-attr-vaibhavi-sutar], [http://ernet-iima.rhcloud.com/faculty-and-research/email-iim-prof-sebastian-morris-plagiarism-charges]

For some strange reason the IIMA is yet to publish the report of its plagiarism enquiry committee despite the public call of 3 (out of 5) of the top professors accused, including Prof Morris, to do so (as expressed by Prof. Morris) " ... We would go by the findings of the committee and would urge that the committee should reveal its findings publicly. ..."

A review (one of many similar) on the poor performance of VIPER can be accessed here [http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2010/04/29/review-viper-anti-plagiarism-scanner/]

"Unfortunately, the results were less than spectacular and, truth be told the application fell almost completely flat. The only question is whether the problems were glitches caused by a temporary problems or something more chronic with the program. ... the problem is that it doesn't seem to do the job it set out to."

In the public interest, and to uphold all conventional standards of academic integrity and ethical research, it would be apt if IIMA voluntarily discloses its enquiry committee report as the accused senior faculty themselves wanted. In fact the reports ought to have been published a long time back in the larger public interest.

http://ernet-iima.rhcloud.com/forum/1