U. prof. copies other's work

Veterinary School Associate Professor Robert Whitlock received a research report from a Texas colleague, copied substantial portions of it and then published it under his own name, a chronology of events detailing the incident states. Whitlock -- who was demoted for plagiarizing parts of the paper -- received the report on chronic diarrhea in cattle in March 1986 from Texas A & M Vet School Professor Allen Roussel, the chronology states. Roussel sent it to Whitlock for feedback and, possibly, co-authorship. The chronology, which details the more than five-year investigation into Whitlock's plagiarism, was presented at a March 12, 1990 meeting of the Vet School faculty at which professors decided to form a Group for Complaint to look into the incident. It details the actions and correspondences of Roussel, Whitlock, then-Vet School Dean Robert Marshak, and current Vet School Dean Edwin Andrews. · March 4, 1986: Roussel sent a letter to Whitlock thanking him for agreeing to co-author the paper on chronic diarrhea in cattle. Roussel enclosed his paper entitled "Chronic Diarrhea in Cattle -- Differential Diagnosis." · August 1986: Whitlock presented the paper to the World Congress on Diseases of Cattle in Dublin, Ireland. The paper then appeared in the Proceedings of the 1986 World Congress and in the Irish Veterinary Journal. This article was entitled, "Chronic Diarrhea in Cattle -- Differential Diagnosis" and included substantial portions plagiarized from Roussel. Whitlock was listed as the sole author. · October 1986: While at a continuing education program in Texas, Roussel's department chairperson, Ronald Martens, asked Whitlock about Roussel's paper. Whitlock sent a letter to Roussel saying he would forward the paper "very shortly." · April 14, 1987: Roussel wrote to Whitlock saying he assumed Whitlock was too busy to comment on the paper. In the letter, Roussel added that he would look to publish it elsewhere, but said that if Whitlock "had invested some time in the paper, I will certainly include you as a co-author with permission." · Summer 1987: While revising his paper for research, Roussel discovers Whitlock's paper of the same name. Martens contacted Vet School Dean Marshak who then turned the issue over to his successor, Andrews. · November 25, 1987: Whitlock and Roussel spoke on the telephone. In a December 1, 1987 follow-up letter, Roussel declined an offer to re-publish the paper with his name also on it. "I appreciate your honesty in admitting that you published the paper . . . without my permission or acknowledgement," Roussel wrote. "I feel strongly that the offense was deplorable." · Spring 1988: Whitlock told the section chiefs of the Vet School's Clinical Studies Department that Andrews had investigated him, but had dropped the charges. · January 1989: Whitlock resigned as Clinical Studies department chairperson. The chronology points out that in 1987, Andrews inherited the incident from Marshak and later started an investigation into it. But he dropped the plagiarism charges in 1988, the chronology states. "I think that he got very bad advice . . . from a number of different areas," said Vet School Professor David Knight, head of the Group for Complaint. "I think he was inexperienced in this sort of thing as most of us were. It was badly handled the first time around, which didn't make it easier the second time." Andrews was unable to be reached for comment and Whitlock has not returned several phone calls in the past week. Roussel and Martens could not be reached. According to Charles Benson, chairperson of the Vet School's Department of Clinical Studies, a group of Vet School professors drew up the chronology as part of a complaint against Whitlock. Then, former Faculty Senate Chairperson Robert Davies used this chronology in his presentation of a motion to form a Group for Complaint against Whitlock, Benson said last night. After the March 1990 meeting when this chronology was presented, a Group for Complaint and the Vet School's Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility found Whitlock guilty of plagiarism. Upon the recommendation of this committee, the Board of Trustees demoted Whitlock, making him an associate professor. They did not take away his tenure or lower his pay. Whitlock's demotion was the first time that a University professor was demoted for any reason, Davies said last week.

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