#4- Plagiarism and Fabrication

Have you ever written a paper, and were terrified that you somehow forgot to cite your sources, or cited your sources incorrectly? below are 2 cases of intentional fabrication and plagiarism. Nowadays, there are so many cases of fabrication and plagiarism. We see that in the first example, Steven Newsmaster and his team provided a study to determine if herbal products were fabricating their ingredient lists. In turn, we as readers find out that he and his team fabricated and plagiarized his results through examining products that were fabricated. In the second example, we take a deep dive into the world of finance and nuts. 

Example of Fabrication: 

https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Article/2022/02/04/BMC-journal-launches-investigation-of-2013-Newmaster-paper-that-sparked-NY-AG-affair

In 2013, a botanist named Steven Newmaster along with his team at the University of Guelph wanted to perform research and dig into the truth of herbal products. 

These products include ginkgo Biloba, st. John's wort, and echinacea. The team made a study. The team implemented a process called DNA bar-coding. This method utilizes little pieces of the genetic materials to determine if the ingredients listed on the bottle were in the bottle. This is the ultimate test of fabrication. The results found that the majority of the products did not have the plants that were listed on the label. To fill the bottles, the products had random ingredients and contaminants. These ingredients have been proven to possibly cause skin tumors, colon damage, or liver problems (website). Newmaster told PBS’s Frontline. “I go in to buy a product that I believe in, that I care about and I pay a lot of money for, and it’s not even in the bottle? Are you kidding me?” Later throughout the article, we find out that Newsmaster along with his team plagiarized and fabricated. Newsmaster not only claimed that

these products were fabricated, but he had fabricated the results stating this. Many of the research papers were found to be plagiarized or not even there. Many of the papers went missing. Newsmaster was then alleged that he failed in disclosing the financial interest (website). Some of his teammates stated that they were misled, and had no idea of the lies that Newsmaster was spreading. The irony is off of the charts. In the fall of 2013, one of the papers mentioning DNA barcoding and foresting biodiversity was retracted. According to the star, the investigation concerning Newmaster's paper started early February 2022, and the University of Guelph is still investigating this event and states that they are handling the situation. 

Plagiarism

https://uk.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/just-what-exactly-is-an-nft-2589753

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/nft-marketplace-shuts-citing-rampant-fakes-plagiarism-problem-2022-02-11/

In the world of finance, there is also quite a bit of example of plagiarism. Currently, the NFT business is a huge market. According to uk.investing.com, "NFT stands for non-fungible token. Non-fungible essentially means unique or non-interchangeable." This would be considered a form of bitcoin. This is a digital currency. Last year, Jack Dorsey sold an NFT of his first tweet for 2.9 million dollars.

Since this, many tokens have been produced that look exactly like the original one. Most transactions have been stopped on the Cent website. This is simply due to the large number of false bitcoin tokens being made. Cent states that they are having to play "whack-a-mole". "Every time we would ban one, another one would come up, or three more would come up. "OpenSea- is among one of the largest NFT marketplaces on the internet. Currently, 80 percent of the tokens had some sort of plagiarized quality to them. 

In 2021, sales of NFTs were around 25$ billion dollars. This is such a large market, and for 80% of the tokens to be plagiarized, this is astounding. 

Both of these examples are real-world issues concerning fabrication and plagiarism.