 |
|||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
 |
|||||
|
|
I wish to draw the attention of Tabaccologia's readers to a case of plagiarism in tobacco research. As a researcher and consultant in this field, I have authored the first comprehensive publications on hookah (narghile, shisha) smoking, both from a biomedical and anthropological perspective. Among these, are a 60-page tetralogy on hookah and health which was published in Tabaccologia and a book prefaced by the founder of the French learned society of tobaccology [1][2]. The case of plagiarism was drawn to my attention on the occasion of the 2007 WHO World No Tobacco Day, less than two months after my own work came out [2]. The new book was authored by the president of the OFT (Office Français du Tabagisme) and a renown columnist at Le Monde [3], in collaboration with members from other organisations. It was advertised in the form of an interview published in Le Parisien [4]. This last article actually ignored the existence of my own book and, amazingly, contained a full sentence directly extracted from it. So, on the 27th of May 2007, I lodged a complaint to the newspaper and, two days later, the female journalist eventually acknowledged the facts and apologised. The title of the new book would read, in English: "Everything You Do Not Know about Shisha (narghile)". After I purchased a copy of this book, I realised that it was an act of intellectual and systematic piracy, not only of my own book but also of my other previous publications [2][5]. Furthermore, the book contains numerous and serious errors. For example, it cites a study about COHb among meat grillers as one that would have been carried out on hookah smokers (pages 30-31). Recently, the Publisher of my book asked me to provide a comparative table listing, point by point, the illegally copied material in order to confront it with the original source. Such a table is now available online [6]. In a recent study by Becquemin et al. (Revue des Maladies Respiratoires) [7], co-authored by one of the plagiarists, the book is cited as a bibliographical reference. After informing the Editors, I was glad to see that my message was taken in due consideration. However, the Publisher of the plagiarists' book (Editions Margaux-Orange, Paris, specialised in "scientific literature"), who has never withdrawn it from his collections on sale [3], has openly stated that he stands up for his "authors" and sympathises with them (March 2, 2009: "mais je suis solidaire de mes auteurs avec lesquels je suis lié par des contrats rigoureux"). Clearly, plagiarism violates all ethical codes in biomedical research [8,9]. The "Guidelines on Good Publication Practice" issued by COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics, state, in particular: "Whenever it is recognised that a significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distorted report has been published, it must be corrected promptly and with due prominence. An apology must be published whenever appropriate. If after an appropriate investigation articles prove to be fraudulent or contain major errors that are not apparent from the text, the articles should be retracted. The word retraction should be used in the title of the retraction to ensure that it is picked up by indexing systems. Cogent criticisms from readers should be published unless editors have convincing reasons why they cannot be. Authors of criticised material should usually be given the opportunity to have a response published"[8]. There is now a wide consensus on the plagiarism plague. On its site, The Lancet warns its potential contributors that "plagiarism is globally recognised as a serious academic offence". The University of Geneva is preparing a real own Action Plan against Plagiarism [10] while the Elsevier Group has developed an original anti-plagiarism system called PERK [11]. Indeed, editorial offenders must know that beyond editorial ethics, lies the horizon of scientific integrity and accountability. Recently, researchers from Lebanon, who had used only but a few sentences from my book and Tetralogy published in Tabaccologia, and forgotten to cite the source, have, as true scientists, honestly published an official apology in the Revue des Maladies Respiratoires [12]. For all these reasons, I wished to alert Tabaccologia, hoping that this call against plagiarism will be read and heard everywhere in the scientific world. More specifically and since the plagiarists have never apologised for their crime, I contemplate the idea of filing a suit against them. This is just a question of time against the background of the world hookah epidemic which has kept me busy so far. Chaouachi, Kamal ___________ References: [1] Chaouachi. Tetralogy on Narghile (Hookah, Shisha) and Health. Part 1: Presentation (Tabaccologia 2005; 1: 39-47); Part 2: Chemistry (Tabaccologia 2005; 3: 27-33); Part 3: Diseases (Tabaccologia 2006;1:27-34); Part 4: Public Health and Prevention (Tabaccologia 2006;4:29-38). Full text (in Italian) free plus English and French abstracts available online at: http://www.tabaccologia.org/rivista.html [2] Chaouachi K. Tout savoir sur le narguilé. Société, culture, histoire et santé. Paris [Eng.: Everything about Hookahs. Society, Culture, Origins and Health Aspects]. Maisonneuve et Larose 2007, 256 pages, colour (page 85). ISBN : 978-2-7068-1954-4 http://maisonneuveetlarose.fr/f/index.php [3] Bertrand Dautzenberg and Jean-Yves Nau. Tout ce que vous ne savez pas sur la chicha [Everything You Do Not Know about Shisha (Narghile)]. Editions OFT et Margaux-Orange 2007 (mai). http://www.margauxorange.com/produit.php [4] Alexandra Echkenazi. Une pipe à eau qui inquiète l'OMS [A water pipe that gets WHO concerned]. Le Parisien 2007 (24 May). [5] Chaouachi K. Shisha, hookah. Le narguilé au XXIe siècle. Bref état des connaissances scientifiques [Narghile, Hookah in the 21st Century: An Overview of the Scientific Knowledge]. Le Courrier des Addictions 2004, 6(4):150-152. http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgbz283m_78gkhthv [6] Comparative table : http://kamcha.googlepages.com/PLAGIAT_Bertrand_DAUTZENBERG_Jean_Yv.pdf [7] Becquemin MH, Bertholon JF, Attoui M, Roy F, Roy M, Dautzenberg B. Tailles particulaires de la fumée de chicha [Particle size in water pipe smoke]. Rev Mal Respir 2008 Sep;25(7):839-46. [8] COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics, is "a code of conduct for editors of biomedical journals", "a suggested code of conduct for editors to guide them towards being fair to authors, researchers, and readers": http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines/code [9] ICMJE. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication. Updated Oct. 2007: http://www.icmje.org/index.html#correct [10] Fabienne Bogadi. L'Université de Genève prépare un plan d'action contre le plagiat [The University of Geneva is preparing an Action Plan against Plagiarism. Le Temps (Switzerland), 2007 (24 Aug). [11] Elsevier Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK) : http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/editorshome.editors/Introduction Elsevier and Plagiarism : http://ees.elsevier.com/fct/els_plagiarism.html [12] Riachy M, Rehayem C, Khoury C, Safi J, Khayat G, Aoun-Bacha Z, Saade-Riachy C, Kouche N, Geahchan N. Lettre d'excuses au Dr Kamal Chaouachi [An apology to Dr Kamal Chaouachi]. Revue des Maladies Respiratoires 2009 Jan; 26 (1): 98. * Tobacco Researcher and Consultant http://PublicationsList.org/kamal.chaouachi CITATION: Chaouachi K. An Open Letter against Plagiarism and Plagiarists. Tabaccologia 2009; 1: 46-7 [English version] http://www.tabaccologia.org/PDF/1_2009/19_1_2009.pdf |
 |
