The RECEPTIO-Rossi Affair
December 28, 2022 6:38 AM Subscribe
A specialist on medieval manuscript noticed a possible case of plagiarism. They started looking into it, and found out that nobody is real and nothing is real. The rest of the are worth looking into as well.
Ooh, a long blog post about a scandal! I will save this for later readin’.
posted by Going To Maine at 6:52 AM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Going To Maine at 6:52 AM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
This wild, and it is particularly wild to see the arrant publisher double, then triple-down against someone who clearly knows a lot more about all this than they do. Plus: fake secretary!
posted by chavenet at 7:51 AM on December 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 7:51 AM on December 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
It never occurs to me to take screen shots of things that I encounter.
It's funny to me that someone who is standing firm on the claim of doing a bunch of internet research to publish a book is unable to accept that they've been outed as a fraud by internet research.
posted by hippybear at 7:55 AM on December 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
It's funny to me that someone who is standing firm on the claim of doing a bunch of internet research to publish a book is unable to accept that they've been outed as a fraud by internet research.
posted by hippybear at 7:55 AM on December 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
Found out about this on Twitter yesterday- it’s boggling! I love it!
posted by PussKillian at 8:10 AM on December 28, 2022
posted by PussKillian at 8:10 AM on December 28, 2022
Plus: fake secretary!
Oh man I read the first post a few days and I was already getting a powerful fake secretary vibe.
posted by grobstein at 8:17 AM on December 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
Oh man I read the first post a few days and I was already getting a powerful fake secretary vibe.
posted by grobstein at 8:17 AM on December 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
Whenever I see this kind of malfeasance getting exposed, I think of a line from Doctor Who*: "Did you really think no-one would notice?!".
*Because there's always a line from Doctor Who.
posted by heatherlogan at 8:36 AM on December 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
*Because there's always a line from Doctor Who.
posted by heatherlogan at 8:36 AM on December 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
The funny thing about all this is if the “secretary” had just replied politely, and made up some nonsense story about a horrible error and promised to fix everything, then nothing more would’ve come of it. But because the response was so over the top, it encouraged further digging.
A while back I read a whole bunch about scammers and confidence tricksters and one takeaway was that the ones who affirmed other people’s intelligence and made them feel good about themselves were much likelier to get away with their crime. The ones who tried to shout and belittle others always got caught in the end.
But of course, the people who were able to do the former were much less likely to be scammers and confidence tricksters in the first place.
posted by Kattullus at 8:38 AM on December 28, 2022 [26 favorites]
A while back I read a whole bunch about scammers and confidence tricksters and one takeaway was that the ones who affirmed other people’s intelligence and made them feel good about themselves were much likelier to get away with their crime. The ones who tried to shout and belittle others always got caught in the end.
But of course, the people who were able to do the former were much less likely to be scammers and confidence tricksters in the first place.
posted by Kattullus at 8:38 AM on December 28, 2022 [26 favorites]
Whenever I see this kind of malfeasance getting exposed, I think of a line from Doctor Who*: "Did you really think no-one would notice?!".
Maybe it happens all the time without anyone noticing.
posted by grobstein at 8:39 AM on December 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
Maybe it happens all the time without anyone noticing.
posted by grobstein at 8:39 AM on December 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
I was reading this last night and it just kept getting weirder and weirder. I was wondering how the scammer thought they were going to get away without the funding authority figuring out something was wrong. My MA is in history and my thesis topic was medieval, so this was relevant to alternate-me's career and I just couldn't imagine trying to scam in the field. Too many nosy people and not enough money!
posted by gentlyepigrams at 8:46 AM on December 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by gentlyepigrams at 8:46 AM on December 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
Bananas.
Please note: I am [riverlife's] secretary, who is not aware of our correspondence. I manage this mail account.
Best,
posted by riverlife at 8:52 AM on December 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
Please note: I am [riverlife's] secretary, who is not aware of our correspondence. I manage this mail account.
Best,
posted by riverlife at 8:52 AM on December 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
How delightful! I agree with Grobstein, it’s probably happening a lot and no one notices.
It’s all the more satisfying, then, when people DO notice, and slowly and methodically point it out.
posted by Vatnesine at 8:55 AM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
It’s all the more satisfying, then, when people DO notice, and slowly and methodically point it out.
posted by Vatnesine at 8:55 AM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I like the "actually we colorized the black-and-white image, wow what a coincidence that the result was identical to the full-color image" bit for its sheer creativity
posted by BungaDunga at 9:02 AM on December 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by BungaDunga at 9:02 AM on December 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
I was wondering if this was going to make it on the blue. It's kinda at the perfect cross-roads of class, crises of reproducability, market pressures of elite overproduction, etc, etc ; here's the HN thread about it from a few days ago.
posted by eclectist at 9:04 AM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by eclectist at 9:04 AM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
My favorite specific exchange: 'This example you cite isn't plagiarism from your blog, we're both clearly quoting the 2017 Sotheby's auction catalog description.'
Reply: '1) So you didn't cite your source there (Sotheby's catalog); 2) that description in fact quotes my blog; 3) because I also wrote the catalog description for Sotheby's.'
posted by LooseFilter at 9:51 AM on December 28, 2022 [47 favorites]
Reply: '1) So you didn't cite your source there (Sotheby's catalog); 2) that description in fact quotes my blog; 3) because I also wrote the catalog description for Sotheby's.'
posted by LooseFilter at 9:51 AM on December 28, 2022 [47 favorites]
As someone who has had stuff stolen from their websites and republished, the idea "it's on the internet so it's free" is so deeply ingrained in some people's ideas of right and wrong that there's no correcting them.
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:55 AM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:55 AM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
First humanist I've seen (well, Rossi says she's a humanist; it's debatable) with the "DOI confers scholarly legitimacy via citability" fallacy. Usually I see that nonsense from scientists.
posted by humbug at 9:58 AM on December 28, 2022
posted by humbug at 9:58 AM on December 28, 2022
What an obscure grift! I can't wait to see how it continues. It's as if Borges scribbled a scenario on a napkin after dinner, and a genie found it and made it come true.
It reminds me of a man my father knew, an academic fraud who got his way into small liberal arts college positions with forged letters of recommendation from major literary figures of the time (this would have been the '60s, so Norman Mailer types). He received no real financial benefit — the positions he got were never major. He published reportedly execrable poetry and was eventually run off, though apparently got my dad to nearly put up the house for collateral to get him out of jail one time. People are weird!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:03 AM on December 28, 2022 [11 favorites]
It reminds me of a man my father knew, an academic fraud who got his way into small liberal arts college positions with forged letters of recommendation from major literary figures of the time (this would have been the '60s, so Norman Mailer types). He received no real financial benefit — the positions he got were never major. He published reportedly execrable poetry and was eventually run off, though apparently got my dad to nearly put up the house for collateral to get him out of jail one time. People are weird!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:03 AM on December 28, 2022 [11 favorites]
Putting something up in a public space like the internet does in fact mean that you are willing to give something away for free. Trademark, like accreditation at the moment, is on the creator.
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 10:14 AM on December 28, 2022
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 10:14 AM on December 28, 2022
I've spent much of the last twenty-four hours following this instead of working. Here's a great recap of our story thus far to complement the blog posts in the OP.
It would be fascinating to know how much bottom-tier low-impact humanities scholarship is plagiarized. Perhaps as corpus analysis techniques get better we'll soon know. Anecdotally I guess I think it's not much, because if people stole more the quality would be better.
I also look forward to finding out how lucrative this grift actually was. I suspect not very, but that it served other psychic needs for Rossi. I hope there's a good 10k word New Yorker-style piece about the whole thing in due time, ideally from someone who has a good feel for the grant-funded post-doc precariat of the European academic system, of whom Rossi, an unsalaried honorary professor, is a prime example.
posted by sy at 10:34 AM on December 28, 2022 [15 favorites]
It would be fascinating to know how much bottom-tier low-impact humanities scholarship is plagiarized. Perhaps as corpus analysis techniques get better we'll soon know. Anecdotally I guess I think it's not much, because if people stole more the quality would be better.
I also look forward to finding out how lucrative this grift actually was. I suspect not very, but that it served other psychic needs for Rossi. I hope there's a good 10k word New Yorker-style piece about the whole thing in due time, ideally from someone who has a good feel for the grant-funded post-doc precariat of the European academic system, of whom Rossi, an unsalaried honorary professor, is a prime example.
posted by sy at 10:34 AM on December 28, 2022 [15 favorites]
Glorious when the philologists start tracking typo propagation.
Is there a service that will screenshot, time stamp, and hash a URL for problems of this kind?
posted by clew at 10:42 AM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Is there a service that will screenshot, time stamp, and hash a URL for problems of this kind?
posted by clew at 10:42 AM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
There's the Free Timestamp Authority.
posted by BungaDunga at 10:56 AM on December 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by BungaDunga at 10:56 AM on December 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
Putting something up in a public space like the internet does in fact mean that you are willing to give something away for free. Trademark, like accreditation at the moment, is on the creator.
See, this person proved my original point that people think things on the internet are 'free': the statement above is super wrong in many ways.
Copyright does not require the creator to do anything, it exists upon the creation and/or publication of the work; providing a copyrighted work through whatever medium the creator wants, even if there is no cost to the reader, does not make the work "Free" or free from copyright restrictions on who may use the work.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:22 AM on December 28, 2022 [42 favorites]
See, this person proved my original point that people think things on the internet are 'free': the statement above is super wrong in many ways.
Copyright does not require the creator to do anything, it exists upon the creation and/or publication of the work; providing a copyrighted work through whatever medium the creator wants, even if there is no cost to the reader, does not make the work "Free" or free from copyright restrictions on who may use the work.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:22 AM on December 28, 2022 [42 favorites]
Metafilter: "The grant-funded post-doc precariat of the European academic system"
posted by riverlife at 11:28 AM on December 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by riverlife at 11:28 AM on December 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
Carla Rossi: the George Santos of medieval scholarship.
posted by Ishbadiddle at 11:34 AM on December 28, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by Ishbadiddle at 11:34 AM on December 28, 2022 [11 favorites]
Kidd has already added two more blog posts to the saga after the ones linked above: Part V and Part VI.
posted by mbrubeck at 11:56 AM on December 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by mbrubeck at 11:56 AM on December 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
and nothing is real.
Nothing to get hung about.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:14 PM on December 28, 2022 [20 favorites]
Nothing to get hung about.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:14 PM on December 28, 2022 [20 favorites]
Fraud in academia is always startling and more common than you'd think. When I was applying for an academic job, the guy offering the job gave me a paper to edit written by one of his students. It was a study of the educational effectiveness of a one-off device for teaching reading. I happened to know that the paper and its data were entirely made up, because the device had not been used for many years: In fact, it sat neglected in a back room in my kid's university-run preschool.
I told my prospective employer about the fraud, and he thanked me politely, took the paper back, and never got back to me. I don't know if the student ever had any consequences.
posted by Peach at 12:29 PM on December 28, 2022
I told my prospective employer about the fraud, and he thanked me politely, took the paper back, and never got back to me. I don't know if the student ever had any consequences.
posted by Peach at 12:29 PM on December 28, 2022
This is amazing - I bet no expert in ancient manuscripts ever expects to get to ask "is Noemi de Sanctis a real person?" That's James Bond stuff.
I also loved the gentle pressing in of the stiletto when he said that the reason that an auction catalogue she cited in her defence did not credit him by name was not that he was not considered a valuable source by the auction house but because he wrote the catalogue entry, and didn't want to seem vain.
posted by running order squabble fest at 12:33 PM on December 28, 2022 [17 favorites]
I also loved the gentle pressing in of the stiletto when he said that the reason that an auction catalogue she cited in her defence did not credit him by name was not that he was not considered a valuable source by the auction house but because he wrote the catalogue entry, and didn't want to seem vain.
posted by running order squabble fest at 12:33 PM on December 28, 2022 [17 favorites]
My employer's ridiculously strict internet filter won't let me visit the blog posts because the site is categorized as "malicious intelligence," which really feels poetic.
posted by nickmark at 1:07 PM on December 28, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by nickmark at 1:07 PM on December 28, 2022 [10 favorites]
*Because there's always a line from Doctor Who.
Your ideas intrigue me and I would blah blah Homer Simpson cliché.
posted by y2karl at 2:36 PM on December 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
Your ideas intrigue me and I would blah blah Homer Simpson cliché.
posted by y2karl at 2:36 PM on December 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
The grant-funded post-doc precariat of the European academic system
It me *sadge*
posted by Pyrogenesis at 3:49 PM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
It me *sadge*
posted by Pyrogenesis at 3:49 PM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Copyright does not require the creator to do anything
That's true, but in this case the copyright on those medieval manuscripts has long since expired if it ever existed (probably not) and I suspect that scanning them for the purpose of academic reproduction isn't transformative enough to count as original for copyright purposes.
I'm kind of surprised that the response wasn't something like "What? These things are plainly public domain. Also we are a fly by night publisher, so we pretty much laugh in the face of your adorably quaint and academic plagiarism complaints."
posted by surlyben at 3:50 PM on December 28, 2022
That's true, but in this case the copyright on those medieval manuscripts has long since expired if it ever existed (probably not) and I suspect that scanning them for the purpose of academic reproduction isn't transformative enough to count as original for copyright purposes.
I'm kind of surprised that the response wasn't something like "What? These things are plainly public domain. Also we are a fly by night publisher, so we pretty much laugh in the face of your adorably quaint and academic plagiarism complaints."
posted by surlyben at 3:50 PM on December 28, 2022
This is in Europe, where different concepts of copyright apply. The commentary in the Sotheby's catalogue is not public domain (and likely wouldn't be considered so anywhere), and that was one of the things that was knocked off by the grifters. Maybe individual scans could be considered out of copyright, but when published together in a collection for a particular reason they might gain collection copyright
posted by scruss at 3:59 PM on December 28, 2022 [14 favorites]
posted by scruss at 3:59 PM on December 28, 2022 [14 favorites]
It seems like we are battling the idiocy of today, fighting a league of morons[1].
"It is so obscure, nobody will ever notice or even care."
Well, I can think of one particular guy who is very interested and will almost certainly look at your shit. That guy you stole all of this specific niche material from! Duh?
[1] I made this up all by myself I am so clever!
posted by Meatbomb at 4:00 PM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
"It is so obscure, nobody will ever notice or even care."
Well, I can think of one particular guy who is very interested and will almost certainly look at your shit. That guy you stole all of this specific niche material from! Duh?
[1] I made this up all by myself I am so clever!
posted by Meatbomb at 4:00 PM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
The commentary in the Sotheby's catalogue is not public domain Apologies, somehow I missed that she had quoted the commentary and I thought she was just publishing the manuscript pages. You are, of course, correct, and I regret the error.
posted by surlyben at 4:28 PM on December 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by surlyben at 4:28 PM on December 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
Interesting to see some of the links disappearing before your eyes.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 4:45 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 4:45 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
I can't believe the fake secretary is basically named Righty McRightwing
posted by jason_steakums at 7:26 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by jason_steakums at 7:26 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Receptio page for the ms in question now says this:
"Today, 27 December 2022, a criminal complaint was filed with the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) for defamation, slander, incitement to violence and stalking against the blogger who set up a disgusting defamation campaign. The police will contact the blog operators as soon as possible and submit an application for international cooperation in criminal matters. Regarding the ridiculous accusations of plagiarism, let the readers of this edition judge"
Incitement to violence? I mean I read through all seven of his blog posts (why am I so fascinated by this case?) and I somehow missed the part where he encouraged his readers to take up arms against this particular sea of troubles.
posted by Ishbadiddle at 7:40 PM on December 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
"Today, 27 December 2022, a criminal complaint was filed with the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) for defamation, slander, incitement to violence and stalking against the blogger who set up a disgusting defamation campaign. The police will contact the blog operators as soon as possible and submit an application for international cooperation in criminal matters. Regarding the ridiculous accusations of plagiarism, let the readers of this edition judge"
Incitement to violence? I mean I read through all seven of his blog posts (why am I so fascinated by this case?) and I somehow missed the part where he encouraged his readers to take up arms against this particular sea of troubles.
posted by Ishbadiddle at 7:40 PM on December 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
The "criminal complaint" part is what pushed me over into disgust territory. Last person please turn off the lights? The flailing should die down eventually.
posted by tigrrrlily at 7:56 PM on December 28, 2022
posted by tigrrrlily at 7:56 PM on December 28, 2022
Literally eating popcorn while reading this.
posted by lock robster at 10:48 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by lock robster at 10:48 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Regarding the ridiculous accusations of plagiarism, let the readers of this edition judge"
Yes well good luck with that given that the Internet has already read it all and the judging is well underway.
posted by chavenet at 1:09 AM on December 29, 2022 [3 favorites]
Yes well good luck with that given that the Internet has already read it all and the judging is well underway.
posted by chavenet at 1:09 AM on December 29, 2022 [3 favorites]
This is fascinating and great fun to read. It actually makes me kind of happy to see academics standing-up to plagiarists. It’s notable that the academic is the adult in the room, while the plagiarist immediately reveals themselves to be childish by bringing semi-obtuse legal threats into the room.
One thing I want to point out, though (and this is in no way a defense of the plagiarist) is that the London “office” Receptio uses is an increasingly common multi-business location arrangement. Small businesses pay a fee to list themselves at the location, and can schedule time in said office in order to conduct meetings, seminars, etc. These offices are usually located in trendy or otherwise impressive/desirable addresses. There is once such place ten minutes from me, smack in the middle of the wealthiest of Indianapolis’ northern suburbs. I don’t think they include the phony business signage, though LOL.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:12 AM on December 29, 2022
One thing I want to point out, though (and this is in no way a defense of the plagiarist) is that the London “office” Receptio uses is an increasingly common multi-business location arrangement. Small businesses pay a fee to list themselves at the location, and can schedule time in said office in order to conduct meetings, seminars, etc. These offices are usually located in trendy or otherwise impressive/desirable addresses. There is once such place ten minutes from me, smack in the middle of the wealthiest of Indianapolis’ northern suburbs. I don’t think they include the phony business signage, though LOL.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:12 AM on December 29, 2022
There's a whole nasty Dunning-Kruger vibe around this when people such as "David La Monaca," self-identified as some sort of techie and alleged spouse of the accused plagiarist, try setting up anon bots and emails to harass people but end up inadvertently including tracer info that self-doxxes them.
posted by meehawl at 5:45 AM on December 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by meehawl at 5:45 AM on December 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
Scientific Committee
Due to the slanderous campaign against Professor Carla Rossi and the research centre, it was decided to have a peer scientific committee. Moral leadership remains in the hands of Carla Rossi, every scientific decision is the whole responsibility of the centre's committee, consisting of …
Moral leadership, hehe
posted by waving at 5:54 AM on December 29, 2022
Due to the slanderous campaign against Professor Carla Rossi and the research centre, it was decided to have a peer scientific committee. Moral leadership remains in the hands of Carla Rossi, every scientific decision is the whole responsibility of the centre's committee, consisting of …
Moral leadership, hehe
posted by waving at 5:54 AM on December 29, 2022
OK some semi-original research: the Morrissey Connection! So some Scottish bloke named frenchbloke found that David La Monaca, the husband / IT guy / stalker-in-chief of this tale, had used the "cercamon" name before, on a Morrissey fan site in 2005. In which Sig. La Monaca announces the launch of his own Morrissey fan site, Wor(l)d of Morrissey, which now is just "under construction." But it wasn't under construction in 2005.
So, eight hours later, La Monaca is accused of plagiarism! "Has anyone else noticed the "information" about the songs has been lifted directly from It May All End Tomorrow?" To which La Monaca replies: "Yes, I have taken some info from IMAET website, which is not updated since 2002... anyway, I wanted to go online very soon so I had to start with something. Some comments have been revised or cut to what I think is useful for my goal." And then the whole thing is dropped.
I used the WayBack Method™ to check it out and indeed he lifted straight from this other website without attribution. Compare Original Our Frank lyrics analysis with his. I just picked that one at random, but there are probably many other examples.
I don't tweet, so feel free to let the non-metafilter world know about this Hugely Important Discovery! Just, you know, cite me.
posted by Ishbadiddle at 6:32 AM on December 29, 2022 [11 favorites]
So, eight hours later, La Monaca is accused of plagiarism! "Has anyone else noticed the "information" about the songs has been lifted directly from It May All End Tomorrow?" To which La Monaca replies: "Yes, I have taken some info from IMAET website, which is not updated since 2002... anyway, I wanted to go online very soon so I had to start with something. Some comments have been revised or cut to what I think is useful for my goal." And then the whole thing is dropped.
I used the WayBack Method™ to check it out and indeed he lifted straight from this other website without attribution. Compare Original Our Frank lyrics analysis with his. I just picked that one at random, but there are probably many other examples.
I don't tweet, so feel free to let the non-metafilter world know about this Hugely Important Discovery! Just, you know, cite me.
posted by Ishbadiddle at 6:32 AM on December 29, 2022 [11 favorites]
well, part of the agreement of being a DOI registrar with Crossref (which Receptio is, having joined just earlier this year for a $275 annual fee plus DOI resolutions) is to not pull shit like this
posted by avocet at 6:46 AM on December 29, 2022
posted by avocet at 6:46 AM on December 29, 2022
Amusingly, the Receptio "Library" appears to be just screen shots from Z-Library.
posted by meehawl at 6:52 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by meehawl at 6:52 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
Part VII: More Clear Evidence of "Quoting"?
posted by mbrubeck at 7:03 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mbrubeck at 7:03 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
Kidd has dropped a new blog post!
I really need to get out more.
posted by Ishbadiddle at 7:03 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
I really need to get out more.
posted by Ishbadiddle at 7:03 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
I mean, if they hadn’t already looked as guilty as sin, few things scream: “Arrogant, inept liar who never imagined they’d get caught, finds themselves bang to rights” than overblown legal threats. It’s absolute textbook behaviour.
The amazing thing is that it’s all over such an obscure corner of the world’s knowledge. Imagine being so desperate to be an expert in exactly which page of a manuscript was auctioned when, that you’d go to these lengths. I don’t want to do down this field of studies and expertise, but it’s not quite Theranos, is it?
Elizabeth Holmes may have been unhinged but you can sort of see why someone might want to claim that they’d revolutionised modern medicine, and become so intoxicated by what their legacy would be if it were true, that they’d weave a massive web of deceit in trying to make people believe that. This is not quite that.
Such small, obscure stakes, and surely it would have been quicker and more cost-effective to just do it all by the book, than to go setting up fake websites, addresses, staff IDs etc.
posted by penguin pie at 8:25 AM on December 29, 2022
The amazing thing is that it’s all over such an obscure corner of the world’s knowledge. Imagine being so desperate to be an expert in exactly which page of a manuscript was auctioned when, that you’d go to these lengths. I don’t want to do down this field of studies and expertise, but it’s not quite Theranos, is it?
Elizabeth Holmes may have been unhinged but you can sort of see why someone might want to claim that they’d revolutionised modern medicine, and become so intoxicated by what their legacy would be if it were true, that they’d weave a massive web of deceit in trying to make people believe that. This is not quite that.
Such small, obscure stakes, and surely it would have been quicker and more cost-effective to just do it all by the book, than to go setting up fake websites, addresses, staff IDs etc.
posted by penguin pie at 8:25 AM on December 29, 2022
If your goal is to fraudulently obtain grant money, then the more obscure field of study, the better. And the more sprawling you can make your organization seem, the more money you can scam.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:39 AM on December 29, 2022 [14 favorites]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:39 AM on December 29, 2022 [14 favorites]
Honestly, medievalists and philologists are not to be fucked with.
QFT
posted by chavenet at 9:28 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
QFT
posted by chavenet at 9:28 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
That last Kidd-post [.vii] was heavy on the rhetorical coincidence?
Made me think of the 8½min 4 a.m. Mystery TED talk by Rives.
On a more serious note
Ishbadiddle: "Incitement to violence? I mean I read through all seven of his blog posts (why am I so fascinated by this case?) and I somehow missed the part where he encouraged his readers to take up arms . . ." and similar elsewhere. Of course not, Peter Kidd is a gentle old medievalist but he's providing twice daily stalk-fodder to The Righteous Internet. Gentle old me really wouldn't want to read Prof "DOI" Rossi's inbox this week. I don't imagine it's all about plagiarism.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:20 AM on December 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
Made me think of the 8½min 4 a.m. Mystery TED talk by Rives.
On a more serious note
Ishbadiddle: "Incitement to violence? I mean I read through all seven of his blog posts (why am I so fascinated by this case?) and I somehow missed the part where he encouraged his readers to take up arms . . ." and similar elsewhere. Of course not, Peter Kidd is a gentle old medievalist but he's providing twice daily stalk-fodder to The Righteous Internet. Gentle old me really wouldn't want to read Prof "DOI" Rossi's inbox this week. I don't imagine it's all about plagiarism.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:20 AM on December 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
he's providing twice daily stalk-fodder to The Righteous Internet.
Worse yet, against a woman. There are a lot of people who seem to exist solely to disgustingly harass literally any woman who is the slightest bit notable online (whether positively or negatively; it really doesn't matter). I assume a nonzero number of them have been attracted to this particular flavor-of-the-month. Hardly Peter Kidd's fault, though.
posted by jackbishop at 10:29 AM on December 29, 2022 [7 favorites]
Worse yet, against a woman. There are a lot of people who seem to exist solely to disgustingly harass literally any woman who is the slightest bit notable online (whether positively or negatively; it really doesn't matter). I assume a nonzero number of them have been attracted to this particular flavor-of-the-month. Hardly Peter Kidd's fault, though.
posted by jackbishop at 10:29 AM on December 29, 2022 [7 favorites]
That’s true, I had not considered that. You really don’t want to be the main character on Twitter.
posted by Ishbadiddle at 1:06 PM on December 29, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Ishbadiddle at 1:06 PM on December 29, 2022 [5 favorites]
You really don’t want to be the main character on Twitter.
QFMFT
posted by hippybear at 1:30 PM on December 29, 2022 [3 favorites]
QFMFT
posted by hippybear at 1:30 PM on December 29, 2022 [3 favorites]
#ReceptioGate and the (absolute) state of academia. The numbers game has incentivised bad behaviour.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 10:28 AM on January 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 10:28 AM on January 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
Not speaking Dutch, I ran that article through Google Translate and I absolutely love this quote from Rossi:
"You confuse the meaning of sentences with the accumulation of words in the wild."
I’m totally going to steal that phrase.
posted by Kattullus at 3:28 AM on January 14, 2023 [8 favorites]
"You confuse the meaning of sentences with the accumulation of words in the wild."
I’m totally going to steal that phrase.
posted by Kattullus at 3:28 AM on January 14, 2023 [8 favorites]
another fake journal plus coverup blowback (link to Twitter, sorry)
posted by clew at 9:55 AM on January 20, 2023
posted by clew at 9:55 AM on January 20, 2023
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posted by Pyrogenesis at 6:39 AM on December 28, 2022 [3 favorites]