Francesca Gino, a Harvard professor already alleged to have used fabricated data in her ethics research, is also now accused of plagiarism. Passages from a paper and two books by Gino originally appeared in other works, including student theses and blogs, and were not cited or otherwise attributed.
A book chapter co-authored by Gino, who was found by a 2023 Harvard Business School (HBS) investigation to have committed research misconduct, contains numerous passages of text with striking similarities to 10 earlier sources. The sources include published papers and student theses, according to an analysis shared with Science by University of Montreal psychologist Erinn Acland.
Science has confirmed Acland's findings and identified at least 15 additional passages of borrowed text in Gino's two books, Rebel Talent: Why it Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life and Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan. Some passages duplicate text from news reports or blogs. Others contain phrasing identical to passages from academic literature. The extent of duplication varies between passages, but all contain multiple identical phrases, as well as clear paraphrases and significant structural similarity.
Hot-shot academics and internet-tier intellectuals cobbling together books from search, wikipedia and assistants as quickly and cheaply as possible seems a commom pop science marketing fail. At some point these folks would achieve celebrity escape velocity and somehow get immunity from scrutiny an consequences. Not anymore. "Plagiarise or perish, then perish anyway."
