| HN Mirror

What is your area? I publish in AI (mainly IJCAI/AAAI, MLJ and some smaller conferences) and had one of my rejected papers copy/pasted into a new submission to a different conference without my consent. When I asked for the copy to be retracted a new paper was written, also based on my paper, to replace the copy of my paper without telling the conference. When I complained to the conference the new paper was sent to the reviewers of the first copy (which had been accepted before the new paper was written) with a note "explaining" a mistake had been made and then the new paper was also accepted to the conference. I reported all this to the integrity team at the host institution and there was an informal investigation which found that there had been "some level plagiarism" (sic) but it was only poor academic practice, not misconduct and there would be no disciplinary consequences. Right now we're at the point where I'm waiting for Springer, who publish the conference proceedings, to also sweep it all under the rug and let me know that publishing a copy of a copy of my paper meets their high scholarly standards.

Plagiarism brings a slap on the wrist unless the case is very high profile, like the example posted by azan_20 in the sibling where the plagiarising academic had many accolades and a big reputation. If the target or source of plagiarism is not famous it's like stealing bikes.

And of course if you're a senior academic being accused of misconduct by a less senior academic you can LOL about it because it's all a big joke and the less senior academic is the one who'll get a hit to their reputation for making a fuss and rocking the boat.