When PhD student at the Department of Political Science Maria Toft returned from maternity leave, she brought back new ideas to share with her research group. But the collaboration with the project\u2019s senior researchers quickly turned sour.<\/p>\n
\u00bbMy ideas were independent ideas, but they would not recognize that,\u00ab Maria Toft says about the two senior scientists. They claimed that the ideas were their ideas just as much as hers.<\/p>\n
\u00bbResearchers plagiarising other people’s work or ideas happens unfortunately more often than you would think. I have heard from many who have also experienced this, but who cannot, or dare not, say no,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n
A young researcher may have written a scientific article, but then come under pressure to share authorship with others \u2013 often older \u2013 researchers. Or maybe they discover that another researcher has taken credit for the original ideas or hypotheses that they came up with.<\/p>\n
That is why Maria Toft has\u00a0 \u2013 with the Danish association for PhDs PAND \u2013 taken the initiative for a new campaign called #pleasedontstealmywork.<\/p>\n
\u00bbThis is a problem that many of us PhD students know exists, and which we discuss,\u00ab says Luisa Hedler, who is co-chairperson of PAND.<\/p>\n
Inspired by #MeToo, its campaign under the hashtag #pleasedontstealmywork will gather anonymous testimonies from young researchers who have themselves experienced, or seen others, get their research results, ideas or data stolen.<\/p>\n
\u00bbYou are already stressed and vulnerable doing a PhD, and we want to avoid this being made worse by having to experience your work being stolen by others. All PhD students must be able to enter into collaborations in an academic setting with confidence and without fear. You should not be afraid to talk to your colleagues for fear of theft,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n
Disputes about authorship and plagiarism are widespread in the world of research, according to Morten Rosenmeier, an expert on copyright and a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH).<\/p>\n
\u00bbIt is crucial for a researchers’ career that they have many publications in the right places, and it is therefore increasingly common for researchers to collaborate, and to mention many other researchers. The question about what it takes for you to be mentioned in work, is something that gives rise to many cases and disagreements,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
Luisa Hedler agrees that the pressure to publish many scientific articles helps foster a greater risk that young researchers get their ideas and analyses stolen.<\/p>\n
\u00bbThis does not happen because professors are evil,\u00ab she emphasises.<\/p>\n
\u00bbIt is the product of an academic culture, and pressure on researchers to keep publishing. In this situation that is not ideal for anyone, it is the young researchers who are the ones that are negatively affected by it. We are the weakest link.\u00ab
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Young researchers are seeing older colleagues stealing the credit for their ideas, data, and analyses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":130584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4539],"tags":[330,5264,5265,4628,785],"class_list":["post-130536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arbejdsmiljoe-en","tag-forskning-en","tag-morten-rosenmeier-en","tag-pand-en","tag-ph-d-studerende-en","tag-uredelighed-en","expression-feature_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n