El Aref’s fraud

El Aref ‘s Fraud:
Many graduate students have made important discoveries good researches and contributions to scientific research only to have their work appropriated by an advisor or senior colleague with more clout and weight to throw around. Such students find themselves with little recourse, and if they do raise their voice in complaint, they may find themselves facing severe recriminations for daring to question the plagiarist behavior of a tenured, powerful, and corrupt scientific overlord.

All of a sudden, the lowly graduate student finds himself cut out of the deal for important research projects. He finds himself out of laboratory space, out of a research assistantship, out of a job, and maybe even out of a career. Such sob stories are not just out of the ordinary, scare-mongering urban legends. Horrific experiences have befallen numerous graduate student researchers bold enough to let out so much as a peep of protest against the greedy usurpation of their hard labor by a senior researcher.

The case of Hussein M. Hassan at (graduated from Cairo university , Geology Department, Faculty of Science) and working now in steel industry in Egypt) seems to have had a happier outcome than the ongoing saga. Sabry was working with his doctor Mortada Morad Taha El Aref (M. M. T. El Aref) , a professor in the geology department, Cairo university ( unfournately he is now chief principal of Basel convention regional center for training and technology for Arab states in Cairo University) and Hassan was one of the members who helped that doctor in the field trips and even during the promotion of the professor‘ s papers. Hassan discovered that his mentor and adviser, Professor Mortada El Aref at Cairo university, had transmitted portions and paragraphs of a paper which Shawky had authored individually for publication in mineralium deposita 1994 entitled “the genesis of the stratabound to stratiform Cretaceous – Eocene iron ore deposits of El Bahriya Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt” . El Aref appropriated this material verbatim from Hassan’s article for use as part of a cut-and paste composing strategy in a paper nearly entitled the same name “ The geology and genesis of the stratabound to strataiform Cretcaeous – Eocene iron ore deposits of El Bahriya region , western Desert, Egypt” and he submitted it for publication in the Geology of the Arab World Conference that held in 1996 ( from astonishment, this doctor was one of the organizing committee that responsible for preparing of the papers” in collaboration with other authors (M. A. El Sharkawi, from Cairo university, Geology Department and M. A. Khalil, from Iron and Steel company, Mining Department, El Baharyia Oasis) . About one third of El Aref ‘s paper that appeared later on in this conference came from Hassan’s paper, and the rest of the text was lifted, or self-plagiarized, from another published article written in collaboration with another Cairo university colleague.

El Aref even admitted his “cutting and pasting” strategy, justifying his behavior by claiming that such derivation and recycling of text is a common phenomenon in the scientific discourse communities!

El Aref tried to throw in a few distracting elements to disguise the serious issue of plagiarizing a colleague’s work. For example, he claimed that the issue was just a personal misunderstanding between himself and his former student. He also claimed that he had intended to insert Hassan’s name as a co-author when the galley proofs arrived for a final proofread, and because those proofs never came, this final change was never made. In fact, the proofs were sent to Professor El Sharkawi as he was conference editor. Some of the honor colleagues insisted, supporting Hassan’s version of this plagiarism incident.

Hassan filed a formal complaint with the Cairo university when he found himself excluded from important research projects. As a result of such cases, critics have called for greater accountability in the scientific disciplines. Graduate students and junior researchers deserve credit and recognition for their contributions to scientific advancement, and as demonstrated by other notable cases of scientific misconduct, the potential for corruption of the scientific and professional discourse should not be taken lightly.

Straightforward observation of the scientific misconduct phenomenon demonstrates that scientific researchers who get away with the first few instances of misconduct may be in the fasten toward becoming career plagiarists, fabricators, and/or falsifiers capable of contributing hundreds of questionable articles and research reports to the professional literature over the course of a fraudulent career .

Such fraudulent misuse of position and resources deserves the harsh light of publicity which plagiarism sleuths such as El Aref focus on such shameful, fraudulent misconduct within the scientific community.

Mass-produced plagiarized papers over many years”; More than 20 papers determined to be plagiarized / fabricated out of a career total of 40 published over a span of his life.

Referees here in the Ore mineral deposits in Brazil discovered this case when Hassan sent his article associated with his senior M. El Aref. The extensive plagiarism and recommended against publication. The first referee (Dr.I. Taylor) discovered the plagiarism and also second referee had not recommended the manuscript for publication, conditional on revising and rewriting. The third reviewer did not recommended the manuscript, conditionally or otherwise, the paper would have been accepted for publication as an “Occasional Papers” monograph by the Center, but fortunately, the discovery of plagiarism resulted in outright rejection of the paper without it undergoing a review by a third referee.

Thanks to the growth of the Internet in the 1990s, powerful new tools for plagiarism sleuths became available for use in tracking down textual plunderers in the digital age. Today, millions of documents can be scanned, nearly instantaneously, for linguistic matches, which as El Aref has demonstrated, can help bring to light the sort of scientific misbehavior discovered in this case.

1- El Aref, M,M. and G. C. Amstutz: (1983) Lead-zinc deposits along the Red Sea coast of Egypt. New observations and genetic models on the occurences of Um Gheig, Wizr, Essel and Zug El Bohar. 1983. VII, 103 pages, 138 figs., 1

2- El-Aref , M.M. and Lotfy , Z.H. Genetic karst significance of the iron ore deposits of El Bahariya Oasis , Western Desert , Egypt. p. 1-30

3- M. El Aref, A. El Dougdoug, M. Abdel Wahed and A. W. El Manawi 1993: Diagenetic and metamorphic history of the Umm Nar BIF, Eastern Desert, Egypt

4- M. M. El Aref, F. Awadalah and S. Ahmed (1986): Karst landform development and related sediments in the Miocene rocks of the Red Sea coastal zone, Egypt .International Journal of earth Science, 75 (3): 781- 790, 1986

5- INTERPRETATION OF THE SOURCE OF THE EVAPORITE MINERALS IN QUATERNARY GYPSUM CRUSTS (GYPCRETE) AND RECENT
CONTINENTAL SABKHA SETTING, AYUN MOUSA, WEST SINAI, EGYPT.
M. A. M. Aref and M. R. Abou El Safa

Egypt
6- EVOLUTION OF LATE PLEISTOCENE TO RECENT EVAPORITE EPOSITS OF RAS SHUKEIR SABKHA, GULF OF SUEZ, EGYPT.
M. A. M. Aref and G. H. Bachmann

Egypt
7- 8 th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GEOLOGY OF THE ARAB WORLD, CPROGRAM REAT FESTIVAL HALL, Cay, 13 February 2006


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