As the dramatis personae are real and the event is real, I am reproducing below a Note to Editor that appeared in the latest issue of the Journal of Educational Planning and Administration. Since the Note is by me, I do not need any permission from anyone to reproduce it here. I may add that considering the importance of the issues involved, longer versions of this Note, giving a blow-by-blow account of the story have appeared in a number of web sites such as the bbc, tehelka, MSN, under the title Plagiarise or Perish. As I have touched upon Internet Plagiarism in my review of Google that is not included here.
Dear Editor, Some time ago you had reviewed in your journal the book Learning and Freedom: Policy, Pedagogy and Paradigm in Indian Education and Schooling by John Robert Shotton. Of its four chapters the first is only a slight modification of a paper “India’s Educational Efforts: Rhetoric and Reality” by P. Radhakrishnan and R. Akila that appeared in the Economic and Political Weekly of November 27, 1993. So, though belated, permit me to raise four related issues. One, despite his apologies to me, and to Dr. C.T. Kurien, editor, Review of Development and Change(who, as a concerned academic, took up Shotton’s plagiarism with his publishers), despite seeking Dr. Kurien’s advice on what could be done and despite Dr. Kurien’s suggestion that as publishers of the work Sage Publications, New Delhi, should make an announcement in the EPW withdrawing the book from circulation, by not making the suggested announcement Sage proved that what matters to it is not so much its integrity and international reputation, but the loss it was likely to incur by withdrawing from sale a spurious publication by it. Incidentally, Dr. Kurien published an Editorial Note stating that what Shotton did was a gross violation of academic ethical standards, and hence he had decided not to review the book in the journal edited by him(Review of Development and Change, Vol. III, No. 2, July-December 1998, Page 382).
Two, though in a letter to the authors of the EPW article(and also to Dr. Kurien) Shotton indicated some steps to rectify the situation including a public apology, he did not honour any of them.
Three, though the book mentioned Shotton as Deputy Director at the Centre for Overseas and Developing Education at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, thereby giving the impression that he is a staff of the University of Cambridge, the following letter to me from the Vice-Chancellor of this university casts even more doubts on Shotton’s academic credentials and integrity: I write to acknowledge your letter … about Mr. J.R. Shotton, who is not a Professor, or indeed, I believe, even an employee of the University. In the circumstances I cannot help you directly, but I will do what I can to draw the situation to the attention of those concerned.
Four, the Shotton syndrome, to paraphrase what Dr. Kurien described in a related letter, is a kind of vicarious, exploitative, unethical international “scholarship” emanating from highly visible scholars located in prestigious academic centres, which is becoming part of the rapidly globalizing academic environment. As it has larger implications for the on going knowledge revolution and the related knowledge systems, it cannot be wished away by the academic community if they believe in scholarly objectivity, and healthy academic and intellectual growth. In that sense Shotton’s “contribution” calls for wider international debate.