I know that there have been similar cases here, so please share them with me if you succeeded or not in doing anything about it.

Yesterday I discovered that my ex-supervisor has published in a peer-reviewed journal a paper derived from an 80,000 word report we wrote together for a national government. We wrote the report, with me doing the Lit Review (which is what the report was all about) and him doing the intro and conclusion. At the time I was working as his Research Associate. I took 8 months out of my PhD to do this job as I had no money. I believed he had saved my (financial) life.

He turned the report into a co-authored (with me) book. Early this year he emailed me to say a 'paper' we'd written had been published. It was an extract and summary of part of the report, He did this without asking me or telling me, but at least my name was on it.
But he'd actually published another, at the same time, that one in his name alone. Again, he hadn't told me - perhaps wisely!

We did have a falling-out but both papers were submitted 6 months before that.

I'm bewildered. Are academics allowed to do this? And might this have any bearing on the fact that he became very nasty towards me and now seems to be standing in my way? Is his attitude a cover-up for his duplicity?

Hi

I'm not entirely surprised about this, some academics seem to go in for this type of thing. Have you been in touch to check that this was not simply a mistake? that would be my first option, after that I would simply write to the journal and state that some of it is your work and not your supervisor's. When making such allegations, proof is often required, do you have such a thing eg an accepted PhD thesis from the institution with some of the contnets of this report in it, or some other published document with tis information in it that acknowledges you as an author.

Without evidence, it becomes your word vs his which could be difficult, but if you have evidence, then take him down.

When you say ex-supervisor, I take you have finished working for him now and have completed your PhD, and don't have anything else you wish to publish with him? if this is the case you have nothing to lose by kicking up a fuss about this behaviour

I sent him an cheery email with the title on it, and asking why he hadn't told me, and why it was just his name,. I got a reply yesterday saying that he'd completely rewritten it and felt that the paper was his own, now, as it was based on presentations he'd done, and not on the Report we did together (ps, nothing to do with my PhD, just something I did while I was doing my PhD). The presentations were AFTER he'd submitted the paper!

I've read the paper (which he doesn't know!) and he's just wriggling out of it. Yes, he'd done some editing to cut down the length, and added an odd sentence here and there, and one of the 7 sections is one he did, but essentially it wouldn't get through Turnitin!

I don't have any experience of this so I can't help I'm afraid but I would say nail him!  That's just plagiarism and there is no excuse for it. As Cakeman has said it's very hard without solid proof so I'd be careful how you do it as he's HoD so might make things difficult for you regarding your affiliation with the department as he sounds very petty. Have you anyone trusted you can talk to within your dept or academia about this?

Good luck and I really hope he gets what is coming to him! He shouldn't be able to get away with it!
:-s

Will respond tomorrow. Currently caught up in ethical events beyond this forum. To those of us who are ethical/idealistic/honest journalists, the events of the last 24 hours have placed everything else into second running. Bear with me..

He is petty, no doubt.

I normally act very emotional and I have a very strong sense of justice. I would probably ruin my relationship with him, mostly because I wouldn't respect him as an academic and a person any more. How can you trust someone who takes advantage of someone weaker for own benefit.

if you take legal actions against him do you have any alternative for supervision? Do you think that it could destroy your future in the uni? Will the other academics support you or will they support their colleague? How long do you still have to go with your PhD?

I don't know if it is wise to keep it quite or more power abuse will follow if he can get away with this.
Good luck