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MEHR ERFAHREN

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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.
  • 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.
  • The thesis refers to three "case studies" as part of the research done. All three case studies consist of text found on the Internet:
  • 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:
  • 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."

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:
Percentage text parallels Number of pages
No text parallels documented 21
0%-50% text parallels 34
50%-75% text parallels 27
75%-100% text parallels 140
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.
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 page
Normal
(conservative)
values
Values used
for Ids
less 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.

Ids col

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.
  • ABSTRACT  1, 3
  • CONTENTS  
  • DECLARATION  (12)
  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  (13)
  • LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES  
  • 1. THE ETHIC BEHIND CLIMATE CHANGE  15, 16
  • 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  
  • 2. THE PRESENT STATUS OF CLIMATE CHANGE  28, 29, 30
  • 2.1. Effects are Becoming Evident  31, 32, 33
  • 2.2. Chronology of Climate Change Interventions  34, 35, 36, 37
  • 2.3. The Failure of Kyoto Protocol  38, 39
  • 2.4. Failing Again at the Copenhagen Summit  40, 41, 42
  • 2.5. Is There Still Hope Left?  43, 44, 45
  • 2.6. Conclusion  46
  • 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  
  • 4.1. Understanding Traditional Knowledge Systems  69, 70, 71, 72
  • 4.2. Western Sciences vs. Traditional Knowledge  73, 74, 75
  • 4.3. The History of Suppression of Knowledge  76, 77
  • 4.4. Traditional Religious Knowledge  78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83
  • 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  
  • 6.1. Methods for Interpreting Foreign Knowledge  130, 131
  • 6.2. Stages of Development in Mannheim’s Sociology of Knowledge  
  • 6.2.1. Early Influences  132
  • 6.2.2. Influences of Marxism  132, 133
  • 6.2.3. The Synthesis Movement  134, 135
  • 6.2.4. Structural Analysis of Epistemology  135, 136
  • 6.2.5. The Weltanschauung Concept  136, 137
  • 6.2.6. Max Scheler Influence  138, 139
  • 6.3. Karl Mannheim’s Sociology of Knowledge  139, 140, 141
  • 6.4. Introduction to Ideologies and Utopias Ideology  142, 143, 144, 145
  • 6.5. Transmitting the Knowledge: Sociology of Education  146, 147
  • 6.6. Social Movements: Climate Revolution  148, 149
  • 6.7. Sociology of Climate Ethics  150, 151
  • 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  
  • 8.1. Buddhist View on Intrinsic Value of Life   170
  • 8.2. Finding the Middle Way through Various “Centrism”   173, 174
  • 8.3. Ethics, Action and Karma  
  • 9. COMMUNICATING ENVIRONMENTALISM  
  • 9.1. Introduction to the Case Studies  177
  • 9.2. Case Study 1: Warren Wilson College  
  • 9.2.1. Introduction  179
  • 9.2.2. The History  179, 180
  • 9.2.3. Mission of Warren Wilson College  181
  • 9.2.4. The Unique Educational Triad  181, 182, 183, 184
  • 9.2.5. How Warren Wilson Differs from Other Institutes  185, 186, 187
  • 9.2.6. Conclusion  188
  • 9.3. Case Study 2: Waldorf Education  
  • 9.3.1. The Waldorf Philosophy  189, 190
  • 9.3.2. Waldorf Curriculum  190, 191
  • 9.3.3. Waldorf Developmental Stages of the Student  191, 192, 193
  • 9.3.4. Survey about the Efficiency of the Waldorf Education  193, 194, 195, 196
  • 9.3.5. Conclusion  
  • 9.4. Case Study 3: Reducing the Ecological Footprint  197
  • 9.4.1. What Is the Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED)?  197, 198
  • 9.4.2. What is an Ecological Footprint?  198, 199
  • 9.4.3. Criticism of the Ecological Footprint Model  199, 200
  • 9.4.4. A Comparative Study  201, 202
  • 9.4.5. Green Practices of BedZED  203, 204
  • 9.4.6. Conclusion  204, 205
  • 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
  • 11.1. The Role of Religions in Climate Change  223, 224, 225
  • 11.2. The Role of Education in Climate Change  228, 229
  • 11.3. How Can Schools and Universities Change their Ethics  230, 231
  • 11.4. The Role of Eco-Villages in Climate Change  
  • 11.5. Dawn of a new World Environmental Ethics  233