The Ethics Committee of the University of Babes Bolyai (UBB) from Cluj-Napoca did not check the entire doctoral thesis of Interior Minister Lucian Bode, but only the fragments that were found to be plagiarized. “The percentage (of plagiarism) is so low because there have been so many complaints and we have identified so many through our own analysis based on anti-plagiarism software,” Ethics Commission spokesman Professor Dr Dacian Dragos told Europa. FM. He claimed that there was “no way” to fully analyze Bode’s thesis.

Interior Minister Lucian Bode’s doctoral thesis contains “citation errors” and “some plagiarized fragments”, the Ethics Commission of Babes Bolyai University (UBB) in Cluj-Napoca found. According to the commission, “this does not mean with certainty that the plagiarism was intentional or rather it was the result of ignorance or failure to apply the citation technique”, but this does not change the conclusion that there are plagiarized fragments.

The conclusions of the UBB commission that analyzed Lucian Bode’s doctoral dissertation:

• “It was stated that 3 out of 4 points of message No. 14390/18.10.2022 contain fragments of plagiarism, other fragments of plagiarism were discovered as a result of the internal analysis of UBB.
• The fragments identified as containing a plagiarism problem represent approximately 1,923 words out of the 65,000 word thesis (2.95%).
• However, taking into account that the original texts from which the plagiarized fragments were taken are cited in the text and in the references (with one exception), even if not where and/or as they should, this does not necessarily mean that plagiarism was intentional or rather resulted from ignorance/inability to apply citation techniques (eg use of quotation marks/block of text; cover citation, etc.).
• This does not change the conclusion that there is plagiarism.”

The commission notes in the report that it analyzed “exclusively the problems identified externally through referral 1439/18.10.2022, as well as those that arose in the iThenticate 2018 and Turnitin anti-plagiarism 2022 reports initiated by the UBB.”

• The full report of the UBB Ethics Commission on Lucian Bode’s doctoral dissertation can be found here

“There is no possibility for such a thing”

“The percentage (of plagiarism) is so low because there have been so many complaints and we have identified so many through our own analysis based on anti-plagiarism software,” Ethics Commission spokesman Professor Dr Dacian Dragos told Europa. FM.

When asked if the Commission therefore analyzed only what was complained about and not the entire work, Dačian Dragoš said that “to analyze every thesis in this way would be a titanic task”:

• “The only thing complained about is that you can’t analyze the whole paper because, you understand, you can’t find sources that anti-plagiarism software doesn’t identify.
• Analyzing each thesis in this way is a titanic task, there are no opportunities for this.
• It is analyzed by ethics commissions and the Ethics Board based on reports, the reports must clearly state what was copied, from which source, so evidence must be attached.
• As for the rest, what was noticed, I also checked the plagiarism test for certain signs that could lead to suspicions of fraud, and I checked those, longer texts that could be fraudulent, and there I have more , we also discovered a few other things.”

When asked by Europa FM if this means that they do not have the administrative and logistical resources to analyze the entire thesis, the representative of the UBB ethics commission answered:

• “No, but it’s impossible, because you have to suspect that the text is copied from somewhere, you don’t have the possibility to search every text, every sentence, that is, you don’t have the possibility to do it, and it won’t be within the competence of the ethics commissions. do, so we only act on reports where there is a reasonable suspicion that fraud is taking place.”

Without any penalty. “Sanctions must be proportionate to the offense committed”

As for possible sanctions, the Commission shows in the report that it would propose to impose sanctions on Minister Bode with a written warning and the correction of all works published in violation of the rules of good conduct.

• “However, we note that the person who filed the complaint does not belong to the categories provided by law to which sanctions may be applied for violating university ethics and proper conduct in research activities,” the UBB Ethics Commission notes.

The articles relating to the quality of persons against whom the Commission on Ethics may be referred for improper conduct are:

• Art. 308 par. 1 Law No. 1/2011 – “… members of the university community”
• Art. 11 index 1 of Law No. 206/2004 – “research personnel”
• Art. 1 of the UBB Code of Ethics – “…members of the university community (students, master’s students, doctoral students, teaching staff and scientists, auxiliary teaching staff, non-teaching staff)”
• Art. 4 years a) – Regulations on the UBB Ethics Commission – “..members of the university community”
• Art. 7 – Regulations of the UBB Ethics Commission “… members of the university community, respectively: a) students, master’s students, doctoral students, b) teaching staff and research staff, c) management staff, d) administrative staff.”

Answering the question whether it is necessary to deprive the title of doctor in the case of Bode, prof. Dačian Dragos answered “no” because “sanctions should be proportionate to the offense committed”: “However, we would enter into a discussion whether it is possible or not, whether it is constitutional or not, because, you know, the Constitutional Court gave a decision that it almost closed any possibility of depriving the title of a doctor in an administrative procedure, and even the courts can no longer do this, since he forbade them to decide on the merits, but only on the procedure.”