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Case for Discussion Marvin Brian, a faculty member at a major research university was funded by a contract to conduct work within a relatively well defined work-scope. Brian was the advisor of an advanced doctoral student, Henry Ruth, and a beginning master's student, Mark Butterworth. Henry served as the lead investigator, including preparing and presenting reports to the funding agency. Mark worked on the same project, sharing his data with Dr. Brian and Henry. After working on the project for about two years, Mark submitted his thesis which was reviewed and approved by Dr. Brian, but not seen by Henry. A year or so later, when Henry was finishing the text of his doctoral dissertation, he discovered that Mark's thesis contained at least one complete table representing his work in exactly the format that Henry had used to express his results. The master's thesis contained a general acknowledgement of Henry, among others, but there was not specific attribution associated with the verbatim table. All parties were aware that this research was supported by a contract with a defined work-scope. Does this sponsorship justify duplicative "publication" in a master's thesis and doctoral dissertation without explanation? If not, how should the matter have been handled? Once duplicative "publication" occurred, what should be done and who is responsible for initiating remedial action? used with permission |
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