向密西根州立大学官员与教授发公开信讨论方舟子剽窃事件

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向密西根州立大学官员与教授发公开信讨论方舟子剽窃事件


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在我向密西根州立大学教授卢-伯斯顿博士发信请求翻译其致方舟子公开信之后，卢-伯斯顿教授来信允许我翻译并在自己博客上传播，卢-伯斯顿教授还主动把我添加进入相关事件的讨论组，这个讨论组中有密西根大学各级官员。最近的来信中，方舟子试图私下道歉，道歉缺乏诚意，避重就轻，让卢-伯斯顿教授严词拒绝。详情请参阅华裔科学家刘实的专文报道。

对于方舟子的狡辩与密西根州立大学此前对方舟子在校期间的抄袭案件的处理不满，我向密西根州立大学发出了公开信，谴责相关官员与密西根州立大学缺乏道德责任感，要求方舟子诚实道歉。下面是英文原文。

Thank Dr. Root-Bertstein for including me in this forum and taking a stand for academic integrity.

Let me remind Dr. Fang that public forum for such an important issue had been your position not long ago. When you launched an open attack on Dr. Shi Yi-gong. Dr. Shi attempted contact you to discuss matters privately. You had not only refused Dr. Shi but also insulted Dr. Shi publicly for attempting the private dialogue.

In my opinion, a public apology with the level of sincerity demonstrated by Dr. Root-Berstein is the least Dr. Fang should do to resolve this issue on his part.

I have made my fair contribution to the discovery of Dr. Fang's plagiarism and bad science writing on Dr. Ge's list. I do not underestimate Dr. Fang's animosity and personal feelings. I am enemy to any plagiarizers and labeling me as an enemy helps no cause when you plagiarize and are caught. Dr. Fang has to realize that even if I was his friend, I would still expose his and his wife's plagiarism. Friendship and animosity does not matter when integrity is at jeopardy.

I noticed that MSU officials are included in this list. Just before Dr. Root-Berstein wrote his open letter, I was contemplating an article to criticize the hypocrisy of American educational institutions and individuals. MSU stood a typical example of handling academic integrity in such a fashion. Dr. Fang's plagiarism was committed as an MSU graduate student. Yet MSU evaded responsibility to take a moral stand against such a behavior based on technicality. Worse yet, not only MSU failed to stand for academic integrity, it stood by the plagiarizer! The officer in charge of the matter was offended by challenge from informers. He actually side with Dr. Fang by writing equivocal letters to Dr. Fang so that Dr. Fang could spin MSU's position out of proportion.

MSU may argue that indeed Dr. Fang's plagiarism was not related to his dissertation, but it was academic. A classical case in mind, Blair Hornstine. She fight her high school to be the sole valedictorian. Her school wanted to change its rules to name valedictorian when only she could receive such an honor by the old rules. She has disability. The school thought she did not deserve the honor because of all the accommodations she got for her disability. She fight back and won. She was accepted by Harvard University. This case made national headlines and then she was surprised. Some journalists, in an effort to find more about her, found that she plagiarized when she wrote for the school newspaper.

Blair readily and sincerely accepted the consequence and apologized. Her supporters believed that those articles were not for any academic exercises and not counted for grades in any possible way, therefore, Harvard should give her a second chance. Harvard quickly rescinded her admission. Harvard clearly set an example of what to be defined as academic. I would like to mention that the total amount of plagiarism in Blair's several articles (if I remember right, it should be six) were less than any of many Dr. Fang's plagiarized works, including the one that was a simple copy of Dr. Root-Berstein's published work.

I'm hugely amused when I found and read again this article, "Copying a few words is also plagiarism", by Dr. Fang. No wonder I was a fan of Dr. Fang. He stand up for integrity, of others. Blair's acts were judged by criteria stipulated in this important essay. If any of you on this list are interested in this essay, I can volunteer to translated it for you, of course, if Dr. Fang also allows.

Where MSU failed, Dr. Root-Berstein stood up. Dr. Root-Berstein is the moral pearl of MSU. I could still remember one of my professors. One day in class, he declared, one thing you cann't do, was plagiarizing, at least not when he was around. He threatened, if you do, then you are his personal enemy and he would see you expelled. Every university needs a couple of those hardline professors. Why? Because there are just too many easy-going ones. I came from China too. There are temptations for me as well. My classmates and professors have made damn sure that I know how to write and not to steal others' intellectual property. During orientation I was informed of writing assistance and there was discussion about academic integrity. I guess MSU failed Dr. Fang on his education in this regard to a certain degree. While touting himself as number one fraud-buster in China, Dr. Fang just could not get rid of his own fraud. I know he's been trying. GOD in his infinite wisdom had said this. "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."(Proverbs 22:6) In my opinion, MSU owes Dr. Root-Berstein an apology and a recognition. There are situations where you have to take a moral position beyond procedural justice. When the office of integrity fails to take a moral position but insists on procedural justice and sides with plagiarizers, I have to be frank with everyone in this group. I think that office of MSU is a joke. Please do not take me wrong. I know how important procedure justice is and I'm not interested in a superficial education of it. I only want to reminded MSU officers to remember your primary duty. If you are officer of integrity, don't you think you should do something for it?

I'm so much encouraged by Dr. Root-Berstein's open letter that I will demand MSU of an official position on Dr. Fang's plagiarism while he was a graduate student in MSU. You can shuffle responsibilities around, but I think the public deserve an answer. If needed, I can write to additional senior officers or your board or your crediting agencies or state legislators and so on, asking them to help MSU to figure out who should bear the responsibility for academic integrity. Someone has to know, right?

I can see a potential argument coming. Dr. Fang had graduated. There is nothing MSU can do to discipline him. Well, there is a lot you can do as long as Dr. Fang still bears your title. Recently, Braunau Austria had declared to strip Adolf Hitler of any honorary citizenship he may have from this township. It's an odd order since the town was not sure if Hitler has an honorary title from them! Nonetheless, this town took a moral stand and sided with integrity. Don't get me wrong here. I'm not seeking MSU to do anything dramatic, even I believe that MSU could examine all the evidence of Dr. Fang's rampant plagiarism and take appropriate actions. It is simply too costly for MSU.

Lastly I would like to offer suggestions to MSU. Lip services to integrity is dangerous. You need to really educate your student, during orientation, everyone of the syllabi, in school, out of school, of academic integrity. Additionally, you need to offer students from other culture writing assistance. Hone their skills to avoid unnecessary plagiarism. Dr. Fang was a good student until he arrived at MSU. At least of all the plagiarized works we identified, none of them appeared before that. MSU had ruined him. Before you claim superiority in science teaching and instruction, I would also like to point out that I have criticized Dr. Fang's work for lack of science and understanding in numerous instances, some in his own field. Now you understand why Dr. Fang does not like me. Like Dr. Ge, Dr. Fang and his supporters always denigrate me as someone with fraud he has busted and I attack him out of vengeance. When this happens, you ask him and his supporters for evidence and immediately you see why I take such a strong moral position against and become his enemy. I am simply enemy of plagiarizers. I had written thousand of articles. I never plagiarize--at least after I got my proper education at the University of Iowa. That professor, unfortunately, has always been around, in my mind if not always physically. See, MSU, treasure Dr. Root-Berstein, he is your quality assurance.

Sincerely,

Junlin Liao, Ph.D.