Raj Persaud who, since the death of Anthony Clare, is probably the UK’s most prominent psychiatrist, has spent the day batting on rather sticky wicket.  Many news sources, including the guardian and BBC report that in a Manchester GMC hearing today Persaud admitted to having plagiarised material in a book and several newspaper articles and medical journals.

He did admit that this plagiarism was inappropriate and misleading, but denied that his actions were dishonest or were liable to bring the medical profession into disrepute.  This latter claim may need some justification. 

(this next bit has parts pinched from Persaud’s wikipedia page, but that’s okay isn’t it?  I’ve substantially rewritten also added some new bits.  Anyway I’m anonymous!)

Persaud’s troubles started in 2005 and concern claims, now substantiated by Persaud, that he passed off the work of other academics as his own in several publications and books. 

Thomas Blass, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, complained that a large proportion of Persaud’s article in Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry (Volume 9, Issue 2) had been taken verbatim from Blass’s work on Milgram’s experiments, as had an earlier article of Persaud’s in the Times Educational Supplement. Persaud claimed this had been due to an error, and offered to apologise for not crediting Blass.

In the BMJ Persaud appeared to have reviewed a book of Blass’s by simply quoting large chunks of it, but without using quotation marks.  The BMJ subsequently withdrew the piece. Persaud blamed the BMJ’s editing of his original article, a claim that the BMJ refuted.  This Guardian article has further details and a comparision of the relevant texts.

A June 2005 article about Scientology in The Independent is said to have used parts of a publication of the Canadian Professor Stephen A. Kent without attribution.  Around 300 words of the 685-word piece are almost identical to a a paper by Kent titled The Globalization of Scientology, Influence, Control, and Opposition in Transnational Markets.
(a particularly perspicacious discussion of a similar subject can be found here). The paper blamed a ‘production error’ and altered the article in its web archives to properly attribute Kent.

An investigation in 2006 by the South London and Maudsley trust, where Persaud is a consultant, found that parts of his book, From The Edge Of The Couch, appeared also to have been copied.  Persaud admitted that his book had not been adequately sourced and said that he had made these mistakes after overcommitting himself

As a result of these embarrassments Persaud resigned as host of the BBC Radio 4 programme All In The Mind in April 2006 because of the controversy, but returned in April 2007.  He also relinquished an honorary position at the Centre for Public Engagement in  Mental Health Sciences. 

At the extreme the GMC have the power to strike doctors off the medical register, although I think that this would be unlikely (and harsh) in this case.  Punishment not withstanding, Persaud has done his reputation enormous damage.  It is hard to imagine that all these occasions can be the result of errors, as the omissions of citations are too many and too blatant.  Persaud is an clever and able man; can it be that he started to believe his own publicity machine and considered that in order to maintain his omniscient image he had to appear to have to originated all the wisdom that he imparted? 

And if he is chastised, will he bear his soul on Richard and Judy to regain the public’s trust?  I do hope so.

It starts early: UCAS finds that 800 prospective medical students plagiarised their medical school application forms BBC

 

Is It Plagiarism… Or Is It Wikipedia-Like Collaboration?  - a slightly connected article I happened across.

 

More On Raj Persaud: 

‘Psychiatrist to face plagiarism charges at GMC hearing’ Guardian 4 December 2007

Raj Persaud: TV Psychiatrist admits Plagiarism Guardian 16 June 2008

‘He took paragraphs from my work, word for word’ - psychiatrist faces plagiarism charge Guardian November 7 2005

Raj Persaud BBC Profile

Plagiarism Row dogs radio doctor BBC News 3 April 2006

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