Researcher A at a research institute suspected that principal investigator B in their research group had plagiarised parts of their joint article in the field of technology in B’s publication. According to A, B had also misappropriated material from an earlier joint article without giving recognition to the co-authors and using this material in another article. In addition, A pointed out that the structures of two sections of text were almost identical in the two above-mentioned articles.
TENK found that although it was indisputable that B had been guilty of disregard for the responsible conduct of research, it was not a case of research misconduct. As B had admitted the deed and taken corrective action, an investigation proper was not considered necessary.