Prominent findings[]
- Over 90% of the pages of the dissertation's main text contain plagiarized passages. Over two-thirds of the main text is taken almost verbatim from around 100 different sources. These sources are mostly available on the open internet, generally without any or the proper reference.
- The plagiarized passages often consist of whole paragraphs. Numerous entire pages and even complete sections of the thesis are taken from just one source.
- Entire pages taken from a single source can be found on the pages: 22, 29, 30, 33, 39, 41, 42, 44, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 72, 73, 74, 75, 85, 90, 91, 92, 99, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 110, 127, 135, 136, 141, 147, 149, 151, 153, 156, 161, 162, 163, 167, 180, 199, 200, 205, 208, 209, 210, 212.
- Examples of complete sections taken from a single source:
- In Section 3.1, beginning at the bottom of page 50 and extending through Section 3.2 on page 55, more than 5 pages are taken from an Australian government pamphlet, Maguire & Cartwright 2008;
- Section 4.2, extending from page 73 to page 75 (as well as fragments on the pages before) are from an article in a scientific journal for molecular biology EMBO reports by Mazzocchi 2006;
- Section 5.8, extending from page 101 to page 106, is taken from a blog post, Stowe 2008, that is comparing Weber and Durkheim.
- There are also many pages that contain text fragments spliced from various sources.
- The thesis begins on the first page with passages taken from three different sources. Examples of other pages with text from three sources are 17, 122, and 192.
- Text taken from two different sources can also be found on numerous pages such as 15, 63, or the pages from 116 to 121 that generally take one fragment from the web site of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation and one from the Patheos "Religion Library" web site.
- Indisputable evidence of copying from digitally available sources is given by the "hidden links". These are links that are embedded in the PDF of the dissertation that is available in open access from the Humboldt University Library edoc-Server. They were HTML links in the sources that have been faithfully preserved as the text was presumably copied and pasted into a word processor such as Microsoft Word.
- Fragment 034 02, Fragment 035 02, and Fragment 036 02 are taken from the online source UNFCC 2014 and include eight such hidden links that are also found as HTML links in the source.
- The source Jacobs 2012 for Fragment 043 02 and Fragment 044 01 has six links that are preserved in the thesis.
- The source Mazzocchi 2006, although published in the scientific journal for molecular biology EMBO reports, was obviously used from the copy published at PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health open access database. The following extensive fragments all contain PubMed Central links: Fragment 071 05, Fragment 072 01, Fragment 073 01, Fragment 074 01, Fragment 075 01, and Fragment 077 10.
- These fragments from Wikipedia contain many links to other Wikipedia pages: Fragment 157 02, Fragment 159 01, and Fragment 159 14.
- The thesis refers to three "case studies" as part of the research done. All three case studies consist of text found on the Internet:
- Case Study 1 (Warren Wilson College, Section 9.3): Their "Climate Action Plan" (Warren Wilson 2009) is used for Fragment 177 19 and Fragment 181 01. The "College Catalog 2012-2013" (Warren Wilson 2013) is the basis for large-scale text parallels on the pages 179 to 186. Page 187 is from a college document on sustainability (Warren Wilson 2015).
- Case Study 2 (Waldorf Schools, Section 9.3): The entire section stretching from page 189 to page 196 is taken entirely from Ogletree 1998, Suncoastwaldorf 2014, whywaldorfworks.org 2012, and the Wikipedia entry on Studies of Waldorf Education 2016.
- Case Study 3 (Reducing the Ecological Footprint, Section 9.4) There are portions on each page from 197 to 203 that are taken from various sources. In particular, energysavingsecrets.co.uk 2008 and Tinsley & George 2006 are used, with the data on page 202 being copied from the latter. A reference to this source is given on the previous page, but for a paragraph that is actually from another source.
- In Fragment 222 10, the beginning of the discussion chapter, the words of a Yale dean are presented as Ids' own thoughts, albeit partially adorned with quotation marks that are, however, missing any sort of reference as to their source. The same source is used for additional passages in the discussion chapter: Fragment 223 07 and Fragment 224 01.
Source issues[]
- Most of the sources identified in the documentation are not listed in the reference section or used as in-text references.
- There are a number of passages from the dissertation that are taken from Wikipedia pages without reference:
- Not only was text taken from Wikipedia, but also from a wide variety of sources. There is text taken from governmental reports (for example, Maguire & Cartwright 2008), a master's thesis (Welker 2013), a book review (Butler 2013), some organizational home pages (such as Ecovillage Findhorn 2015), CliffsNotes (Fragment 084 09, Fragment 085 01, and Fragment 093 02), many open access journal articles, and various religious reference works available online.
- There are quite a number of phantom references, in-text references that are not elaborated in the reference section. Some of these in-text references are copied directly from the unnamed sources. For example, in Fragment 072 01 there are two in-text references to Iaccarino 2003 as in the true source, but there is no such entry in the reference section.
- Many in-text references are found in the text of the dissertation that do not actually correspond with what is being asserted in the previous sentence or paragraph. These can be referred to as garnish references, they are used to give the impression of scholarship without correctly attributing a statement or summary to the true source. For example, the Fragment 028 06 is referenced as coming from the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change 2004 newsletter. Nothing in that paragraph is even mentioned in the given source, the text is, however, identical to the wording found at Dahl 2005.
Visible copy & paste artefacts[]
In addition to the hidden links in the PDF that are indications of using "copy and paste" from a digitized source into a word processor, there are also a number of visible artefacts. These can also be explained as the result of copying from a digital source.
- In Fragment 021 11 there is a capital T in the middle of a sentence. In the source this was the beginning of a sentence.
- There are copy & paste artefacts in Fragment 162 01:
- " ̳ final" results when the text from the source, ‘final value' is copied and pasted into a text editor. The opening single quotation mark is transformed into the Unicode character U+0333 : COMBINING DOUBLE LOW LINE when inserted into a text editor. The closing single quotation mark was removed.
- The last two words in "being valued ̳ for itself" are also enclosed in single quotation marks in the source: ‘for itself'. The opening single quotation mark is transformed into the Unicode character U+0333 : COMBINING DOUBLE LOW LINE when inserted into a text editor. The closing single quotation mark was removed.
- The opening single quotation mark in 'non-relational' in Fragment 164 02 is transformed into the Unicode character U+0333 : COMBINING DOUBLE LOW LINE and becomes "this ̳ non-relational" when inserted into a text editor. The closing single quotation mark was removed.
- Fragment 173 16 includes a reference to Aronson 1980. The bibliographic entry in Ids for Aronson 1980 includes the text "Barnhill," after the publisher name. The next entry in the literature list of the source Sciberras 2010 after Aronson 1980 is "Barnhill, David Landis. 2001".
- The last sentence in Fragment 231 01 ends with a colon, as in the source, although no text follows.
Other observations[]
- Some portions of the thesis can be found repeated verbatim on other pages:
- A large portion of Fragment 018 01 is repeated in Fragment 065 01.
- The Fragment 024 05 is repeated in Fragment 152 10.
- The two sentences "It is neither because our technology cannot provide enough resources [...] and its underlying values.": can be found repeated in Fragment 001 13, Fragment 017 05, Fragment 062 12, and Fragment 080 02, as well as translated into German at Fragment 004 14 (see Yang 2010).
- The quotation "Our ecological crisis is [...]" is first used in the abstract in Fragment 001 13 (with quotation marks but no source given), then repeated in Fragment 017 05 (with quotation marks and reference to Yang 2010), in Fragment 061 19 (with quotation marks and reference to "(Judi Bari, 1995, 22-25)"), and in Fragment 080 02 (no quotation marks or reference given).
- The published PDF of the dissertation is not identical to the version kept at the University Library of the Humboldt University under the call number "Magazin 2017 B83":
- Figure 1 on page 33 is missing, only the caption is given in the printed version.
- Figure 4 on page 214 has only a small portion printed along with the caption.
- Figure 1.A in the appendix on page 261 is missing, only the caption is given.
- The regulation governing the thesis analysed ("Promotionsordnung", 2012, PDF) contains the following articles:
- § 1 Bedeutung der Promotion, Doktorgrad
"(3) Durch die Promotion wird über den erfolgreichen Studienabschluss hinaus die Befähigung zu vertiefter wissenschaftlicher Arbeit durch eigene Forschungsleistungen auf dem jeweiligen Fachgebiet anerkannt. Dieses wird durch die Vorlage einer wissenschaftlichen Arbeit (Dissertation) und durch ein wissenschaftliches Fachgespräch (Disputation) nachgewiesen." - § 7 Eröffnung des Promotionsverfahrens
"(1) Die Bewerberin oder der Bewerber hat einen Antrag auf Eröffnung des Promotionsverfahrens zu stellen und diesen Antrag auf dem Formblatt ’Promotionsakte’ mit den folgenden Unterlagen beim Prüfungsamt der Philosophischen Fakultät III einzureichen: [...]
- eine schriftliche Erklärung, dass die Dissertation auf der Grundlage der angegebenen Hilfsmittel und Hilfen selbstständig angefertigt worden ist" - § 8 Die Dissertation
"(1) Die Dissertation ist eine vom Antragstellenden selbständig verfasste Abhandlung im gewählten Promotionsfach, die in Form und Inhalt wissenschaftlichen Ansprüchen genügt und zu neuen Erkenntnissen gelangt." - § 15 Rücktritt, Wiederholung, Ungültigkeit
"(3) Wird vor oder nach Aushändigung der Promotionsurkunde festgestellt, dass sich die Doktorandin oder der Doktorand bei den Promotionsvoraussetzungen oder den Promotionsleistungen einer Täuschung schuldig gemacht hat, so erklärt der Fakultätsrat die Promotionsleistungen für ungültig." - § 16 Pflichtexemplare und Publikationsform
"(5) [...] Die Doktorandin oder der Doktorand überträgt der Universitätsbibliothek der Humboldt-Universität, der DNB (Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) in Frankfurt/Leipzig und ggf. der DFG-Sondersammelgebietsbibliothek das Recht, die elektronische Version in Datennetzen zu veröffentlichen und versichert, dass die elektronische Version der angenommenen Dissertation entspricht. Die Universitätsbibliothek überprüft die abgelieferte Version auf Lesbarkeit und Übereinstimmung mit den geforderten Vorgaben. Die Abgabe von Dateien, die den geforderten Vorgaben hinsichtlich Dateiformat und Datenträger nicht entsprechen, gilt nicht als Veröffentlichung."
- § 1 Bedeutung der Promotion, Doktorgrad
Statistics[]
- Currently there are 272 reviewed fragments documented that are considered to be violations of citation rules. For 250 of them there is no reference given to the source used („Verschleierungen“ and „Komplettplagiate“). For 17 fragments the source is given, but the extent of the used text is not made clear („Bauernopfer“).
- The publication has 222 pages that have been analyzed. On a total of 201 of these pages violations of citation rules have been documented. This represents a percentage of 90.5%. The 222 analyzed pages break down with respect to the amount of text parallels encountered as follows:
- From these statistics an extrapolation of the amount of text of the publication under investigation that has been documented as problematic can be estimated (conservatively) as about 67% of the main part of the publication.
- In all, text was taken from 102 sources.
- Due to technical reasons, the following sources are counted in the total above, although only fragments in the category of "Keine Wertung" (not evaluated) are documented from these sources:
- Thus, there are only 97 instead of 102 actual sources documented in reviewed fragments.
- Due to the extensive nature of text parallels in this thesis, a somewhat less conservative estimation of the extent was used in the calculation of the extrapolation given above.
Classification
of extent
per pageNormal
(conservative)
valuesValues used
for Idsless than 50% text parallels 10% 25% between 50% and 75% 55% 62.5% more than 75% 80% 87.5%
Illustration[]
The following illustration shows the amount and the distribution of the documented findings. The colors encode the art of plagiarism determined:
(grau=Komplettplagiat (copy & paste): the source of the text parallel is not given, the copy is verbatim, rot=Verschleierung (disguised plagiarism): the source of the text parallel is not given, the copied text will be somewhat modified, blau=Übersetzungsplagiat (translation), gelb=Bauernopfer (pawn sacrifice): the source of the text parallel is mentioned, but the extent and/or the closeness of the copy to the source is not made clear by the reference.
The text is not legible by design for reasons of copyright.
Clicking on the illustration will enlarge it.
Note: The illustration documents the state of analysis as of 2019-12-11.
A larger version of the above illustration can be downloaded here (1 MB).
Overview[]
- Problematic text parallels can be found in the following chapters and subchapters as of 2020-03-09. Page numbers in parentheses denote pages that were documented but are not counted in the calculations. The pages between 4 and 14 are not counted as part of the main text, as these pages consist of a translation of the abstract, the table of contents, the declaration of original authorship, the acknowledgements, and the list of tables and figures. For page numbers not listed, no source has yet been documented.
- CONTENTS
- DECLARATION (12)
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (13)
- LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
-
- 1.1. The Causes of the Crisis 17, 18
- 1.2. Main Barriers to Human Behaviour Change 19
- 1.3. The Hypothesis 20
- 1.4. A New Mythology to Solve the Problem 21, 22
- 1.5. The Role of Religions and Environmental Ethics at this Time 23, 24
- 1.6. Chapter Outline
- 1.6.1. Part 1: The Present Climate Change Actions and their Errors
- 1.6.2. Part 2: Alternative Knowledge and Approaches
- 1.6.3. Part 3: Examples of Alternative Environmental Actions
- 3. RESISTANCE TO RESILIENCE
- 3.1. Theories of Resilience and Vulnerability 50, 51, 52, 53
- 3.2. Lack of Resilience is Vulnerability 54, 55
- 3.3. A Study of Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behaviour 56, 57, 58, 59
- 3.4. Origins of the Modern Detrimental Environmental Behaviour 61
- 3.5. Explanation of the Hypothesis 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67
- 3.6. An Alternative Plan of Action
- 4. EXPLORING TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE
- 5. THE KNOWLEDGE OF RELIGIONS
- 5.1. The Classical Role of Religion 84, 85
- 5.2. Religion and Ethics of the Society 87, 88
- 5.3. The Sociology of Religions
- 5.4. Durkheim’s Analysis of Religion 89, 90, 91, 92
- 5.5. Max Weber’s Analysis of Religions 93, 94, 95
- 5.6. Reconstructing the Original Weber Model 96, 97, 98
- 5.7. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 99, 100
- 5.8. A Comparison of the Views of Max Weber and Emil Durkheim 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106
- 5.9. The New Role of Religion in Environmentalism 107
- 5.10. Differences and Similarities between World Religions 108, 109
- 5.10.1. What Buddhism teaches about Environmentalism 109, 110, 111, 112
- 5.10.2. What Hinduism teaches about Environmentalism 113, 114
- 5.10.3. What Jainism teaches about Environmentalism 114, 115, 116
- 5.10.4. What Confucianism teaches about Environmentalism 116, 117, 118
- 5.10.5. What Daoism teaches about Environmentalism 118, 119, 120
- 5.10.6. What Shintoism teaches about Environmentalism 120, 121, 122
- 5.10.7. What Christianity teaches about Environmentalism 122, 123
- 5.10.8. What Judaism teaches about Environmentalism 124, 125
- 5.10.9. What Islam teaches about Environmentalism 125, 126, 127
- 5.11. Conclusion 128
- 6. THE SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE
- 7. A NEW ETHICS FOR THE WORLD
- 7.1. What is the Environmental Ethics Movement? 152, 153
- 7.2. The History of Modern Environmental Ethics 154, 155, 156
- 7.3. Biocentrism and Ecocentrism 157, 158, 159, 160, 161
- 7.4. The Intrinsic Value: Final or Non Instrumental Value 162, 163
- 7.5. Criticism of Intrinsic Value 164
- 7.6. Social Ecology’s Criticism on Deep Ecology 165, 166, 167
- 7.7. Conclusion
- 8. BRIDGING THE GAPS
- 9. COMMUNICATING ENVIRONMENTALISM
- 9.1. Introduction to the Case Studies 177
- 9.2. Case Study 1: Warren Wilson College
- 9.4. Case Study 3: Reducing the Ecological Footprint 197
- 10. A BUDDHIST APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT
- 10.1. The Sarvodaya Movement of Sri Lanka 206, 207, 208
- 10.2. The Five Evolutionary Stages of a Village 209, 210
- 10.3. A Buddhist Approach to Disaster Resilience and Climate Change 211, 212
- 10.4. A Change of Approach to Climate Change 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219
- 10.5. The World NGOs Have a Lesson to Learn 220, 221
- 11. DISCUSSION 222