======= Date Modified 24 31 2010 08:31:08 =======
Dear Friends,

I have just completed PhD and recently graduated. Now, I am resting and having a good deserved holiday. Hooray !

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Now is the sad story:
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I've got e-mail from my supervisors stating that I've to publish another paper. I've got 4 publications already. This ruined my holiday and also there is no requirement in my faculty to publish paper, but I obeyed him and wrote a draft paper. His comments were not that good. Slowly, I am preparing the corrections....He was not impressed with the progress (C'mon mate I'm in holiday!)

He also requested another PhD student to double check my experiments and calculations. He do not believe my results as his student got different results. I am not with this student when he ran the experiment.

My experiments were complex and many factors could contribute to different findings. One of them are faulty controller and sensitive flow meter.

He questioned my results and requested to alter my data (in my Thesis) to his student results for the sake of publication.

I already graduated and really sick to the death about this, as he never gave feedback on my previous PhD review's report.

My thesis is approved and I am awarded with PhD. Now with the publication, he wanted me to publish Chapter in my thesis with results "adjusted" to match his PhD student. Is this ethical ? He also wanted me to become the first author of this paper.

What should I do? Can he take away my Ph.D degree if my data do not match his students' ?

Thanks

Hmm, that sounds really odd. There's something else going on there I think, whether his student's results are dodgy or whether they better support something he's working on. You've graduated! Unless they can prove some kind of fraud, there's no way they'd be able to strip you of that. I'm really scratching my head to think of another way they would be able to take it off you.

Don't change your results. You got what you got. You defended it in your viva. It was accepted and you were awarded the degree. I've not heard of this before so it sounds really weird to me, but maybe someone else has come across this. This is only my personal opinion! To go back and change the results without you rerunning the experiments yourself...I don't see how you can do that.

Can you submit the paper to a journal yourself? Not sure of the general etiquette with paper publication. If it's then accepted, you've published the 5 papers he wants so much.

I might be inclined to discuss it with whoever is in charge of research at your University, or a student representative, as they will be able to guide you on the reasons a PhD might be rescinded. It would be VERY difficult for them to do.

Hey! This sounds really odd- I have never heard of anyone having their PhD taken away from them. Has he actually threatened to do this if you don't comply with his requests? When you say he wants you to adjust your results, do you mean the actual original data you have collected? Or does he want you to use your data but analyse it in a different way or something? Certainly, you can't be expected to fabricate your data so that it matches another person's- this is a really serious faux pas in the world of academia, and if you published it and it ever came to light what has happened, your reputation would be torn to shreds. Of course, people can do all sorts of amazing things with stats to make their data look like it is showing something different, and I have come across research where the stats aren't actually wrong, but deliberately misleading. Is it this he is asking you to do? Either way, it sounds like he has his own best interests at heart here, and not yours. I would absolutely refuse to change your data...there would be serious implications for the world of research if people started doing this sort of thing. At the end of the day, you get the results you get, and whether they are what you wanted, what you expected, or neither, you have a duty and responsibility to report them accurately. I would stand your ground- I honestly don't think they can take your PhD away when you've already got it! Best of luck, it's a difficult situation. KB

Heap thanks for your replies.

Yes, my PhD thesis was already awarded and it passed the examination from 4 examiners; I've graduated recently and in holiday at the moment. There is no requirement for publication in my faculty before or after graduations; however I've published 4.

Right in the middle of my holiday, supervisor #2 (the one that ignored and refused to give feedback on my PhD review), sent me an e-mail stating that my thesis data in one of the Chapter was insufficient and set of experimental data from my thesis were wrong.

I have no desired to publish this, however supervisor #2 insisted that I should publish this ASAP. Supervisor #2 got one student directly under him and working on similar project. This student obtained different results from my thesis.

Hence, he requested that if I am too busy of "holidaying", then I should send all the "Excel Files" from my thesis to his student so this student can "adjust" the data for publications. He promised that I will become the first author and his student become the second author.

This is rather strange as my publication data/graphs would be very different from my thesis. My thesis is already published on-line by the University.

I felt this is very unethical. This set of experiments involved with lot of human interactions, number of factors could contribute to this error.

I refused to reply to his request (supervisor #2) and now he tried to find every holes in my thesis.
During thesis writing, supervisor #2 had stated clearly that he would not read my thesis. My thesis was only under guidance from Supervisor #1 (my main supervisor).

My PhD thesis was already awarded and it passed the examination from 4 examiners and the University.

I am worried about my degree. I really want to move on and ignored his request (Supervisor #2).

I do not want to lose my PhD.

They cannot remove your PhD. You have not been awarded it because you "found something". There are lots of PhDs with negative findings or do not find massive results. They still constitute an original piece of significant research that reflects 3 years or more of work at doctoral standard judged by external examiners- that's why you have been awarded a PhD. Its about skills and abilities acquired.

They cannot revoke your PhD unless they can prove you deliberately falsified your data. In fact, by this yardstick, by changing your results you may be putting yourself in more danger of doing this.

Your ex-supervisor is acting unfairly, but this is par for the course. Probably political. If you need a good reference or need to keep him sweet you can pacify him in some way. If you don't need to have anything more to do with him you can ignore him.

If Supervisor #2's student needs your data that badly he/she can get it from your thesis. That's part of being a PhD student. There's huge red flags all over the place here. If you don't need anything from #2 again, ignore him. Get references from #1 (and consider telling him what #2 is doing). The time for #2 to raise issues was way before you were awarded the degree and there's nothing that he can do now.

Don't worry about your PhD, that sounds safe, but be suspicious of this person's motives.

I agree it seems very unlikely that this supervisor can have your PhD 'taken away' - his actions sound somewhat dubious to me, and I would definitely discuss the situation and take advice from someone else (maybe your 1st sup if you have a better relationship with him/her) before going along with what he asks.

======= Date Modified 25 Jan 2010 12:55:05 =======
Thank heaps !

I've spoken with my colleagues and apparently this kind of "policy" are quite normal in his hometown university. Censorship, lies, and more of fabricated results, all for getting the government funding. One could wonder what will happen next in academia.

What is the whole point of doing research, if your own result will be calibrated with some else data...

I will stand up and refused to change my data and I will not send my raw data (excel files) to him.

======= Date Modified 25 Jan 2010 14:34:55 =======
======= Date Modified 25 Jan 2010 14:34:16 =======
I think you'd be more at risk of undermining your phd position by doing as he has asked. Your findings are your findings, if someone else finds something different then so be it. That's the nature of knowledge generation.

This guy is obviously trying to pull a fast one of some sort....in short, if you don't need him then tell him to bugger right off (only mentally) and ignore him. If you do need him then try and keep it civil but politely and firmly stick to your guns.

I think once you graduate you are not a part of the university anymore, and he is no longer your supervisor . If your thesis was completely wrong it would not have passed, i agree with the comment below, if your change your results you will undermine your phd.:-)