Over the past two years, ferreting out plagiarism has become Tom Matrka’s hobby, maybe even his obsession. And he’s gotten very good at it. So adept, in fact, that the former graduate student at Ohio University ? now a project engineer at a nearby explosives factory ? has single-handedly blown the lid off a huge plagiarism scandal at his alma mater. Dozens of former students are now caught up in the investigation, several professors have been reprimanded, and the university is wrestling with how one department fostered a culture of academic cheating….
So says an August 11, 2006 Chronicle of Higher Education report. A July 21, 2006 report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer offers other details:
Most of the 37 Ohio University engineering graduates accused of plagiarizing parts of their master’s degree research projects have agreed to rewrite their reports, the school said Thursday.
Twenty of the graduates who received letters last month from the school informing them that copied sections of their theses had been discovered opted to revise the questioned portions rather than appeal.
By agreeing to rewrite their theses, the graduates have acknowledged their projects contained “problems,” spokesman Jack Jeffery said.