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Stefan Weber received the order in spring 2021. From a company, not from a private individual, as he says. 380 pages were presented to the plagiarism checker for “detailed control”. A joint doctoral thesis by Siegmund Gruber and his business partner, written in 2005. Six chapters were by Gruber, nine by his co-author. The title: “Prerequisites and institutionalization of socio-economic cooperation for the prevention of money laundering”.
Weber and “Turnitin” got to work. The paid software, which automatically checks texts for copied passages and is also used at Austria’s universities, spent more than an hour on the dissertation.
Weber and his team then analyzed the results for days to check compliance with the rules of good scientific practice. Even at this point, they assumed plagiarism. Because the customer, who has to pay around ten euros per checked page, had “ordered” an in-depth check, the process took a few more weeks. “We ordered cited and uncited literature on the subject and viewed similar or related doctoral theses,” says Weber. The completed report was sent to the Johannes Kepler University in Linz in September 2021 on behalf of the client.
92 pages of violations
The finding suggested that the university should revoke the academic degree. Violations of the rules of good scientific practice were found on 92 of 380 pages, and the examiners discovered 79 pieces of plagiarism on 77 pages. “From a thesis, a text was copied verbatim for pages and without any reference to the source,” says Weber. This thesis had been plagiarized on a total of 41 pages.
The Johannes Kepler University reacted and initiated a multi-part test procedure. Statements were obtained from the Austrian Agency for Research Integrity (ÖAWI) and external experts commissioned. Almost two years later, the result was presented on Thursday: Siegmund Gruber, who rose to become LASK President in 2016, was stripped of his doctorate. According to a statement by the JKU, the expert opinions of the OeAWI would “see essential parts of the dissertation affected by plagiarism relevant to study law”.
The university “under no circumstances” tolerates plagiarism and scientific misconduct. However, the decision is not final, Siegmund Gruber can lodge a complaint with the Federal Administrative Court within four weeks.
That’s exactly what the LASK President announced on Thursday: “Of course I respect the opinion of the university, but I don’t share it,” he says. He worked to the best of his knowledge and belief and was not aware of any guilt. That is why he will also file a complaint against the revocation of his doctorate. The ÖAWI told the OÖ Nachrichten on Thursday that it can be assumed that Gruber’s co-author will also be stripped of his title.
If the Federal Administrative Court dismisses the complaint, Gruber’s title fight before the Administrative Court could continue. If he fails there too, he can no longer use his title. Otherwise he could be fined up to 15,000 euros under the University Act.
“It’s all too slow”
Plagiarism checker Weber praised the JKU’s consistent work, but criticized the length of such procedures: “Every month is one too many, because this title also has advantages,” he says.
In the 15 years that he has been working as a plagiarism checker, only 13 titles have been revoked. Accordingly, he was surprised by this “rare event”. “The universities also reacted far too late. The software for detecting plagiarism, which I also work with, has been around since 1997. At the University of Vienna, it was only linked to their learning platform in 2018,” says Weber. Serious handling of plagiarism checks would raise the quality of the universities. Linz is a good example of this, he says.
Famous plagiarism cases
In recent years, several well-known personalities have stumbled across allegations of plagiarism – often with serious consequences for their own careers.
- Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg: In February 2011, the German defense minister and CSU politician, who was often touted as the successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, was stripped of his doctorate by the University of Bayreuth. An expert opinion revealed that plagiarism can be found throughout the work and some of the original texts have been reformulated. Despite initial support from party colleagues and the coalition, the one-time hopeful resigned from all political offices shortly thereafter.
- Christine Ashbacher: In January 2021, the dissertation by Labor Minister Christine Aschbacher (VP) attracted media attention due to its idiosyncratic formulations (“Assumptions are like barnacles”). Aschbacher then announced her resignation. In February 2023, she was acquitted of suspicion of plagiarism. An expert report had recognized deficiencies in compliance with standards, but could not determine the intention to deceive necessary for a revocation. Aschbacher was able to keep her master’s degree.
- John Hahn: The dissertation written in 1987 on the topic “The perspectives of philosophy today” by the EU Commissioner and ÖVP politician would no longer be accepted under today’s scientific criteria, an expert opinion found in 2011. Hahn was allowed to keep his doctorate; plagiarism could not be proven.
Source: Nachrichten
