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Scholar accused of ‘self-plagiarism’, rector appointment canceled
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niversity of North Sumatra (USU) rector-elect Muryanto Amin has been accused of committing multiple cases of self-plagiarism in recent years, compromising his appointment as the university’s head that had been scheduled for later this month.
An internal investigation carried out in December yielded probable evidence for Muryanto passing of old work as new research, which most recently culminated in an article the 46-year-old scholar had submitted to the scientific journal Man in India.
The university said that, as a penalty for his offenses, Muryanto’s appointment as rector would be canceled. In addition, the lecturer would be denied promotion for an entire year. He has also been ordered to return the financial incentive received for the latest article he wrote for Man.
USU deputy rector Mahyuddin said such sanctions were in line with a decree issued by the rectorate on Thursday. Per the decree, Muryanto was proven to have violated academic ethics and morals, according to him.
“The violations committed by Muryanto as a scholar are very serious,” Mahyuddin told the press on Friday, adding that “self-plagiarism” could lead to an erosion of public trust in academic institutions such as the USU.
USU chief librarian Jonner Hasugian, who helms the university’s internal investigation team for plagiarism, claimed Muryanto’s purported offenses dated back to 2014, when he served as a lecturer.
He said the internal team had made several important findings while investigating the allegation from Dec. 10 to 12, including Muryanto’s involvement in four separate instances of plagiarism: one in 2014, two in 2017 and one in a 2018 dissertation submitted to apply for a professorship.
Read also: North Sumatra University probes rector-elect for alleged plagiarism
This is the third plagiarism case at the university following a 2013 case involving a lecturer and another in 2015 involving a professor.
Jonner said the university had determined that both the lecturer and the professor had committed plagiarism. The two had been sanctioned with delayed promotion.
Abdul Hakim Siagian, a member of the USU’s board of trustees, conveyed his dismay over Muryanto’s alleged repeated ethics violations.
“Muryanto can no longer be appointed [rector], because he fails to meet the requirements in light of the academic sanctions for having committed plagiarism,” he told The Jakarta Post.
The USU board of trustees had elected Muryanto on Dec. 3 to succeed Runtung Sitepu, whose term ends this month. Muryanto won over his competitors with 57.75 percent of the vote to become the youngest rector-elect in the university’s history.
Edy Ikhsan, a lawyer representing Muryanto, claimed the decree used as a basis for the revocation of his client’s appointment as USU rector had been “factually unbalanced”. As such, he said, Muryanto’s legal team would file an appeal against the decree with the Education and Culture Ministry.
“Education and Culture Ministry Regulation No. 17/2010 only regulates plagiarism, not self-plagiarism. The [USU] decree lacks a legal basis,” Edy said. (rfa)
