We have just been informed that someone using the email address integrudotorg@gmail.com is impersonating Integru.org, sending messages such as the following to some Universities:

For the attention of the institution leadership, Dean/Rector,
For the attention of the authors,

Our experts notified us of the following plagiarizing cases within your institution:
[...]
The case will also appear on our website, integru.org

A message we received from a Faculty Dean within Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania: . . .

Following Integru.org’s Review 10: Olesia Mihai, PhD thesis copy/paste plagiarism, the dean of the Faculty of Economy of “Al I. Cuza” University, Prof Dinu Ariniei has stated that Olesia Mihai has just announced her resignation . . .

Recognizing the need for increased transparency, reach and impact, today Integru.org launches Interact (beta), with a first wave of features designed around the idea of community: you can now participate directly and easily in resolving all cases of (alleged) misconduct on Integru.org!

The experts in the field who provide the reviews are still the cornerstone of the Integru platform, however most of the work for resolving a case is done elsewhere, by many independent people: searching for appropriate experts in the field and inviting them to participate are two of the most daunting tasks. Highlighting and annotating documents is another behemoth.

The idea is simple: Everyone — literally everybody — with an internet connection, from the general public to the most prestigious academic, can now easily participate and are highly encouraged to do so! . . .

As unofficially and indirectly informed by the Chief Editor of the European Ceramic Society, the journal has implemented long-term sanctions for all authors – including minister Ecaterina Andronescu – from the Integru.org Review 8: A. Ioachim, Ecaterina Andronescu (research minister) et al – series of 4 articles, plagiarism, self-plagiarism and suspected multiple copyright violations. The specifics of the sanctions are not being revealed at the request of the journal’s Chief Editor . . .

In this week’s editorial, Nature suggests to suspend disbelief. That is also our message to the public.

A general summary of the past few months is made, reminding of the Prime Minister and three Ministers of Research involved in plagiarism. They speak about the importance of the exposed scientific misconduct and the possible effect on public perception.

http://www.nature.com/news/suspend-disbelief-1.11954 . . .

You should also read: Response from Experts and Integru.org on Ministry’s first press release

The Ministry of Education and Research issued another press release, this time regarding the misconduct Review 8 and the B1 TV show which discussed it at great length. We shall not comment on all the Ministry’s arguments related to the misconduct as most were already covered by 4 experts on Sunday.

As was the case with the previous press release, we underline that it was not the Ministry, a state institution, involved in these misconducts of plagiarism and suspected copyright violations, but the persons A.C. Nechifor, A. Ioachim, E. Andronescu et al. In total, 12 persons . . .

Robert Turcescu from B1 TV, on his show “Sub semnul intrebarii” today, presented the Integru.org misconduct Review 008 of A. Ioachim, E. Andronescu (minister of research) et al. A recording is available online at:

http://inregistrari.b1.ro/view-02_Dec-2012-sub_semnul_intrebarii-88.html

The guests of the show are: . . .

You should also read: Response to Ministry’s second press release

Emeritus Professor Ian J. Bruce (University of Kent, UK) has just offered his review for yesterday’s plagiarism case of Nechifor and Andronescu. Inline with the previous 6 reviews, Prof Bruce also found that the paper constitutes “gross professional misconduct on the part of Nechifor and Andronescu”.

Yesterday, the Ministry issued a press release (local copy in English and Romanian) with regards to the plagiarism of Nechifor and Andronescu. Although it was not the Ministry as an institution involved in plagiarism, but the persons Nechifor and Andronescu as scientific authors, the letter is signed by the Ministry, not by Nechifor or Andronescu. The Ministry also issued this press release without undertaking any formal investigation into the matter . . .

Spread the word: www.facebook.com/Integru.org

As the title says, a new case will be published tomorrow morning, 10:00 am Romania Time, (8:00 am GMT), this case will be featured exclusively in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, yet the Romanian press should not be neglected.

UPDATE: The Frankfurter Allgemaine Zeitung article is here and the English translation here . . .

In addition to the existing reviews of the plagiarism case of Prime Minister Victor Ponta’s PhD thesis, we have received three reviews from Dr Grigore Pop-Eleches (Princeton), Dr Alin Fumurescu (Tulane) and Prof Maria Bucur (Indiana).

The reviews can be found on the dedicated case webpage and are also included below.

We welcome new reviews for this case, which could be sent via our contact page . . .

Owing primarily to the article in Nature, the Integru initiative has been featured in a long number of newspapers and blogs on the same or next day of our public launching last week on Aug 15. On the following day we received a great number of messages with congratulations (thank you!) and were informed about 6 more cases of suspected plagiarism.

Below is only a subset extracted from Google Analytics (and excluding personal blogs).

The Nature article: http://www.nature.com/news/romanian-scientists-fight-plagiarism-1.11170 . . .