
"More than ten years ago, my student and I were accused of misconduct. The issue was our just-published paper in a journal. Our accuser pointed to his own recent publication, which had a nearly identical scope to ours. He claimed we were aware of his previous work and had intentionally not cited it because of a lack of "scientific ethics". He also alleged that we had abused our privilege, characterizing us as a well-known research group that deliberately ignored work."
"The editor contacted us to review the accusation and offer a response, before she decided whether to publish it. She was dispassionate and didn't indicate what outcomes she was considering. This was professionally appropriate while she was gathering information. But my student and I were in shock. As an assistant professor still building confidence in my work, I had no experience navigating an accusation of this kind."
More than ten years ago, a research group and a student were accused of misconduct over a recently published journal paper. A rival pointed to his own recent publication of nearly identical scope and alleged deliberate non-citation and abuse of privilege, framing the accused as a well-known group ignoring work from a less affluent country. The accuser submitted a Comment to the journal and the editor asked the accused to respond while she gathered evidence. The accused found alarming similarities, including identical equations and notational choices, and discovered earlier preliminary project documents on their group's website containing the same notation.
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