An update to my post on Dr Nasser bin Ghaith

Many thanks to one of my followers for bringing today’s article on the recent arrests of Dr bin Ghaith and four others to my attention:

Five Emiratis arrested for threatening UAE security

Needless to say, I won’t be commenting on this from a political standpoint, but I will point out that I’m somewhat relieved to have seen it in the newspapers.  It took a little time to get there, but at least it happened.

References:

National Staff. (26 April 2011). Five Emiratis arrested for threatening UAE security. The National. Retrieved (26 April 2011) from http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/five-emiratis-arrested-for-threatening-uae-security

News flash: NYUAD Freshmen Peer-Review Articles!

Sorry, folks, I just couldn’t resist.  Among some of the other drivel I’ve read in the comment section of Charlie Eisenhood’s recent blog piece on the Al Ghaith detainment, this bit (by Observor  [sic] #2) stood out:

Researching and writing an article about political reform, or about the disadvantages of autocratic regimes etc is totally fine (depending on how you go about your research).
Getting it peer-reviewed by NYUAD faculty and students happens without a problem.
Discussing it and debating it with [sic] amongst ourselves is 100% acceptable.

(Read more: UAE Detains Prominent Professor, Raising Questions About Academic Freedom At NYUAD · NYU Local http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2011/04/12/uae-detains-prominent-professor-raising-questions-about-academic-freedom-at-nyuad/#ixzz1KL4BwMTT
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution)

Are the freshman students at NYUAD really researching, writing, and peer-reviewing articles?  Already?

I guess they’re even cleverer than we thought…

References:

Eisenhood, Charlie. (12 April 2011). NYUlocal.com. UAE detains prominent professor, raising questions about academic freedom at NYUAD. Retrieved (22 April 2011) from http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2011/04/12/uae-detains-prominent-professor-raising-questions-about-academic-freedom-at-nyuad/

Preliminary update on Elhoweris plagiarism allegations

I now have in hand the three relevant journal articles (Elhoweris 2005, Bianco 2005, and Elhoweris 2009).

At first glance, things are smelling a bit fishy with respect to Elhoweris’s defense, recently reported in The National, that her 2009 article used similar wording as in her 2005 article (which predated Bianco, 2005).  Implicit in Elhoweris’s statement to The National is the claim that Elhoweris 2009 was more similar to Elhoweris 2005 than to Bianco 2005.  A machine-comparison of the documents indicates this may not actually be the case, but a human-comparison will be necessary before any conclusions can be drawn.

I’ll post more once I have a chance to do a more thorough reading of the three articles.  Due to the journals’ copyrights on these papers, I cannot publicise them on this blog.

Stay tuned.

EA

Where in the world is Dr Nasser bin Ghaith?

According to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Sorbonne University economics lecturer Dr Nasser bin Ghaith has been detained by authorities (read: arrested) (Wheeler, 17 Apr 2011).

NOWHERE in the three major English language newspapers here in the United Arab Emirates (The National, Gulf News, and Khaleej Times) have I found any reference to Dr bin Ghaith’s detainment.

NOWHERE on the Sorbonne-Abu Dhabi site have I found any reference to Dr bin Ghaith’s detainment.

NOWHERE on the NYU-Abu Dhabi site have I found any reference to Dr bin Ghaith’s detainment (despite the fact that both Human Rights Watch and the New York chapter of the American Association of University Professors have asked NYU to step up to the plate and call for bin Ghaith’s release [Wheeler, 17 April 2011]).

Fortunately, there are places to find information and thoughts concerning Dr bin Ghaith’s detainment/arrest/disappearance/whathaveyou (the status appears unclear):

Charlie Eisenhood (12 April 2011) has published a thoughtful piece on the NYULocal blog:
“UAE Detains Prominent Professor, Raising Questions About Academic Freedom at NYUAD”

Habiba Hamid, a journalist at The National, has posted a number of comments regarding the recent detainments of bin Ghaith and other activists on her Twitter site (12 April 2011):
“Context on arrest of Dr Nasser bin Ghaith in the UAE”

Amnesty International (13 April 2011) has published an Urgent Action request:
“Advocates of political reform detained in UAE”

Read it and weep.

References:

Amnesty International. (13 April 2011). Advocates of political reform detained in UAE. Retrieved (20 April 2011) from http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE25/001/2011/en/0c9cfcb7-97c4-49d4-81dd-35e51657d716/mde250012011en.html

Eisenhood, Charlie. (12 April 2011). NYUlocal.com. UAE detains prominent professor, raising questions about academic freedom at NYUAD. Retrieved (20 April 2011) from http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2011/04/12/uae-detains-prominent-professor-raising-questions-about-academic-freedom-at-nyuad/

Hamid, Habiba. (12 April 2011). Context on arrest of Dr Nasser bin Ghaith in the UAE (Tweet). Retrieved (20 April 2011) from http://www.twitter.com/habibahamid

Wheeler, David L. (17 April 2011). The Chronicle of Higher Education. Lecturer’s arrest in the Emirates stirs debate over academic freedom in the Middle East. Retrieved (20 April 2011) from http://chronicle.com/article/Lecturers-Arrest-in-the/127190/

The power of the pen

Back in November of 2010, I posted a piece on the retraction of a journal article authored by a UAEU faculty member. The post elicited a response from the author (Margarita Bianco) whose work was allegedly used without proper attribution, confirming that there had been no apology from either the UAEU faculty member, Dr Hala ElHoweris or from the UAEU administration.  Furthermore, the retracted article continued to appear on Dr ElHoweris’s CV.

Just yesterday, Dr Bianco called to my attention an article published in The National:  “Academic cleared of plagiarism allegation” (Swan, 19 Apr 2011).  According to this piece, senior academics at UAE University have cleared Dr ElHoweris of plagiarism after an investigation that seemed to have been prompted by my original blog post on the subject.  Ah, the power of the pen to stimulate action.

But I have two concerns.  First of all, Elhoweris defends her continued inclusion of the retracted article on her CV by saying that “[she] had not been asked by the publishers to retract it” (Swan, 19 Apr 2011).  Well, it seems to this blogger that the act of retracting a publication from an academic journal means that the article has not been published in that journal, and therefore has no business remaining on the author’s list of publications.  I would expect an academic to realise this and refrain from justifying her continued inclusion of the article because she wasn’t specifically asked to delete it.

My second concern, however, has to do with Swan’s reporting that ElHoweris has been “cleared of plagiarism allegation” because senior academics at UAEU have investigated the issue.  It may very well be the case that ElHoweris’s defense is sound, but one has to question whether the university has the competence or authority to clear her of the plagiarism allegation when the editors of the journal Educational Studies and the publisher Taylor Francis Group have apparently not seen fit to absolve the author.

I can offer no judgement regarding who is in the right in this situation, as I have not seen the three articles in question. Should either Dr ElHoweris or Dr Bianco desire to send along copies of such, I will be happy to review them and post some side-by-side comparisons so that my readers can judge for themselves.

References:

Swan, M. (19 April 2011). The National. Academic cleared of plagiarism allegation.  Retrieved (19 Apr 2011) from http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/education/academic-cleared-of-plagiarism-allegation

ExpatAcademic has been away…

Apologies to my readers and subscribers for the long hiatus.  I will be discussing the recent detention of a Sorbonne University academic as well as an update on the UAEU plagiarism issue in the near future.

Stay tuned,

EA

Any guys named ‘Sean’ out there?

If so, according to the Chronicle’s job list, Zayed University is looking for YOU!!

Sean, College of Education

Yeah, I know it’s nitpicky, but I couldn’t resist.  I mean, I can overlook a typo in the text, but in the main job heading?  C’mon.

One small step for a university…

This week, both The National and Gulf News published a story on Abu Dhabi University’s recent expulsion of 34 students caught cheating:

University expels 34 students for cheating

University cracks whip on cheating

All I have to say is “Hurrah!”

…and that this seems a much more felicitous outcome than firing the faculty who caught them.

References:

Khalaf, H. (27 Dec 2010). University expels 34 students for cheating. The National. Retrieved (29 Dec 2010) from http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/education/university-expels-34-students-for-cheating

Moussly, R. (27 Dec 2010). University cracks whip on cheating. Gulf News. Retrieved (29 Dec 2010) from http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/education/university-cracks-whip-on-cheating-1.736433

Who in the world is Dr Müller? Or, How to Get Published Without Really Trying

Or VDM — Verlag Dr. Müller?

Or VDM Publishing House?

Or LAP Lambert Academic Publishing?

Or Südwestdeutsche Verlag für Hochschul schriften?

Or Verlag Classic Edition (VCE)?

Or Alphascript Publishing?

Ready for the answer, dear readers?  Okay:

They’re all the same entity.  And most of them are what Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware has dubbed ‘author mills.’  For a short description of what an author mill is, see this entry on Wikipedia.

Got it?  If you didn’t have time to read through those pages, let me sum it up for you:

VDM Verlag, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, and whatever they happen to be calling themselves today are publishing houses that publish on demand.  What does that mean, exactly?  Well, let’s say you’ve written something (like, for instance, your dissertation) that no publisher in his right mind would want to turn into a book and market.  But you really want that 300-page treatise to be a book.  The solution is simple — trot on over to VDM/LAP/whatever and ask them to publish it.  You sign over the rights, they print a few copies for you to give to your mum and dad, and then they list it on Amazon.com with a price tag of a hundred dollars or so.  If someone actually orders it, they’ll run off a copy and ship it out.  And maybe they’ll pay you some royalties at some point, but more likely not (Strauss, 2009).  Actually, you don’t even have to do the work of seeking these cats out — their cold-calling techniques are finely honed:  if you’ve written a dissertation (even a crappy one that barely passed), it’ll be on file with UMI.  The “publishers” will track you down, along with your committee members, and send you (and your committee) something that looks like this:

Dear Last Name, First Name,

I am writing on behalf of the International publishing house, Lambert Academic Publishing.

In the course of a research on the XYZ University, I came across a reference to your work in the field of ABC.

We are an International publisher whose aim is to make academic research available to a wider audience.

LAP Publishing would be especially interested in publishing your dissertation in the form of a printed book.

Your reply including an e-mail address to which I can send an e-mail with further information in an attachment will be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to hear from you

Kind regards,
Tatiana Zetu
Acquisition Editor
LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing AG & Co. KG
Saarbrücken
Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken Germany

Uh huh.  So the short version is this:  the published book on offer is really no different than having your dissertation on file at UMI or having UMI run off a few bound copies — because the idea of having a book published is that (and this is key) not just any Joe Schmo gets to have a book published. Think of it this way:  if you’re harbouring any illusions about being in some special set of academics-with-a-book once you’ve gone with VDM/LAP, you’re just in the same set you were before — that of academics-with-a-dissertation.  Which is pretty much everyone.  It ain’t that glamourous, folks.

Here’s what the nice people over at U Mass Amherst’s library have to say about it:

Umass Amherst recommends that students who would normally publish a monograph of their thesis or dissertation for promotion and tenure purposes should rely on more traditionally accepted / peer reviewed publishers within their respective fields for publishing opportunities.  This publishing venue uses a print-on-demand model and markets dissertations and theses through Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com and other large online booksellers.  Royalties are paid to authors when sufficient sales warrant.  VDM/Lambert Academic Publishing routinely contacts authors of dissertations and theses using information they get through ProQuest, the University, library catalogs, and other sources.  Authors should note that VDM/Lambert Academic Publishing requests exclusive distribution rights for versions that they publish.

Why have I spent all this time going on about VDM/LAP?  Simply because I noticed a few of them popped up on the publication lists of faculty members at UAEU.  Then I noticed a few more — at the American University of Sharjah, KUSTAR, the Petroleum Institute, and the University of Sharjah.  In most of the eighteen cases presented below, the VDM/LAP “book” is the only book publication these faculty have to show for themselves (one of them even has two – TWO!).  Not only does this show something less than real scholarly achievement, but if the following faculty (and their program chairs/deans/provosts/etc.) truly believe that these publications are meaningfully different than the Ph.D. that got them a job in the first place, it shows more than a little naïveté.

So while I would be supremely embarrassed walking into my western tenure review with a single book photocopied published by Dr. Müller and Friends (in that case, suicide would seem a felicitous alternative to the review), over here it’s likely that I’d be given a pat on the back and promoted.

Because, after all, this is Academics in the Desert.

And here’s sample based on about 30 minutes of research:

United Arab Emirates University:

http://www.fedu.uaeu.ac.ae/doctors/Mehmet-Buldu.html
Buldu, M. (2009). Constructivism in early childhood education. Teacher educator beliefs and practices. Cologne, Germany: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing AG & Co. KG

http://www.fbe.uaeu.ac.ae/dba/faculty_cv/elbanna_cv.pdf
Elbanna, S. 2010. Making strategic decisions: A state of the art review and empirical evidence from a cultural perspective. Dudweiler Landstr: Lambert Academic Publishing.

http://citweb.uaeu.ac.ae/citweb/profile.jsp?userName=f.ahmed
Ahmed, F.; Capretz, L.F. & Campbell, P. (2009) Software Product Lines: A Process Assessment Methodology, A Practitioner’s Approach, VDM Verlag, Pages: 284, ISBN: 978-3-639-11908-4.

http://citweb.uaeu.ac.ae/citweb/profile.jsp?userName=serhanim
M. Adel Serhani, “A Framework and Methodology for Managing Quality of Web Services”, VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller e.K. (February 20, 2008), ISBN: 3836457679, 204 pages.

http://citweb.uaeu.ac.ae/citweb/profile.jsp?userName=p.campbell
Ahmed, F.; Capretz, L.F. & Campbell, P. (2009) Software Product Lines: A Process Assessment Methodology, VDM Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-639-11908-4.

American Univerisity of Sharjah:

http://www.aus.edu/cas/masscom/people/Ibahrine.php
New Media and Neo-Islamism: New Media’s Impact on the Political Culture in the Islamic World. Saarbrücken: Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller. 2007

http://www.aus.edu/sbm/profile/mmajdalawieh.php
Scholarly Book: Munir Majdalawieh, “Security Framework for Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) System” Published by VDM Verlag ISBN 978-3-8364-7056-8, September 2008.

http://www.aus.edu/cas/matesol/newsletter/documents/Newsletter_Spring_2009.pdf
“In April [2009], Theme in Text: Weighing the Evidence, a book based on [Dr Peter Compton’s] doctoral dissertation, was published by Verlag Dr Müller, Saarbrucken.”

http://www.aus.edu/media/publications/documents/AUSNEWS_May_2010.pdf
Dr. Sattar Izwaini (Arabic and Translation Studies) recently released his book Translation and The Language of Information Technology (Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag). The book is a study of the vocabulary of the language of information technology and how it is translated into Arabic and Swedish. One pioneering aspect of the book is how software and website interfaces are dealt with when translated.”

http://www.aus.edu/facultybios/docs/malsatari.pdf
Al Satari, M., Estimation of Seismic Response Demands for R/C Framed Structures: An Insight Into The Nonlinear Seismic Behavior. (VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2008), ISBN 978-3-639-04424.

Khalifa University:

http://www.kustar.ac.ae/main/index.php?page=kamal-taha
Kamal Taha, Efficient Approaches for Querying XML Data: Keyword-Based, Personalized, and Distributed Queries, LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, May 2010, 160 pp.

http://www.kustar.ac.ae/main/index.php?page=osama-fawwaz
Osama Fawwaz (2010), “Theoretical Calculation of the Electronic States of the Molecule Narb”, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, ISBN: 9783838376042.

http://www.kustar.ac.ae/main/index.php?page=george-wesley-hitt
G. W. Hitt, “Light-Ion Charge-Exchange Applied to Stellar Electron-Capture Studies” (book), LAP Academic Publishing, Saarbrucken, Germany (2010).

The Petroleum Institute:

http://www.pi.ac.ae/pi_aca/pe/faculty_staff/sghedan.php
Jing Lu,  Shawket  Ghedan,  Djebbar  Tiab, “Analytical  Solutions to Productivity and Pressure Transient Equations,”  ISBN 978-3-639-10320-5,  VDM  Verlag Publishing  Ltd., Saarbrucken,  Germany , September,  2010.

http://www.pi.ac.ae/pi_aca/pe/faculty_staff/jlu.php
Jing Lu,  Djebbar  Tiab,  Productivity Equations for  Oil  Well – New Solutions Based on Three Dimensional Models, ISBN 978-3-639-15123-7,  VDM  Verlag Publishing  Ltd.,  Saarbrucken,  Germany , May,  2009.

http://www.pi.ac.ae/pi_aca/cor/faculty_staff/hlim.php
Lim, H. L. (2008). Constructing learning conversations: Virtual collaborative learning processes in higher education. Germany: VDM Verlag. ISBN: 978-3639025583.

University of Sharjah (not American University of Sharjah):

https://www.sharjah.ac.ae/English/Academics/Colleges/Engineering/Departments/Elecomeng/Faculty%20Cv/Pages/DrShoufan.aspx
Shoufan A., “High Performance Group Key Management, A Way to scalable Internet Television”, VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken, 2007, ISBN: 978-3-8364-2128-7.

http://www.sharjah.ac.ae/English/Academics/Colleges/BusinessAdmini/Departments/Managementit/Documents/CV_Dr.OualidBenAli.pdf
Ali Walid (2008) “2D/3D MultiAgent GeoSimulation: A Generic Method and its Application”. ISBN-10: 3836472295

References:

n.a. (n.d.). Author Mill.  Wikipedia. Retrieved (23 Nov 2010) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Author_mill

Strauss, V. VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Retrieved (21 Nov 2010) from http://www.sfwa.org/2009/09/victoria-strauss-vdm-verlag-dr-mueller/

University of Massachusetts Amherst.  (n.d.).  VDM/Lambert Academic Publishing.  Retrieved (20 Nov 2010) from http://guides.library.umass.edu/content.php?pid=110362&sid=832620

Just like the US

Something during my regular morning crawl around the ether made me have another look at the HCT career opportunities — all 75 of them.  And I’ll bet there will be a few more once the existing faculty lines up some new jobs.

But I don’t personally have any reason to dislike the Higher Colleges of Technology (yet), so I’m going to offer my help by doing a bit of editing for them – gratis.  I’ll begin with the description of an HCT career on the page titled Working at the HCT:

Here’s the original:

The working environment here is similar to what you would encounter in any major western educational institution. The typical day will depend on which position you are in and which program. We are open from Sunday to Thursday with Friday and Saturday as our weekend. Teaching can take place between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. and you may work different shifts depending on the classes you teach. Faculty usually teach 20 periods per week and are expected to be in the college for at least 8 hours per day. One of our aims is to teach good work habits to students and another reason is that students will often come to faculty desks to seek help. Non-teaching staff generally work from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Higher Colleges of Technology, 2010)

And here’s my edited version:

The working environment here is NOTHING LIKE what you would encounter in any major western educational institution. The typical day will depend on which position you are in and which program. We are open from Sunday to Thursday with Friday and Saturday as our weekend. Teaching can take place between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. and you may work different shifts depending on the classes you teach. Faculty usually teach 20 periods per week, more than twice the load at a western university, and are expected to be in the college for at least 8 hours per day, which should elicit a hearty laugh from any western academic . One of our aims is to teach good work habits to students and another reason is that students will often come to faculty desks to seek help and the concept of making an appointment in advance and keeping it eludes them. Non-teaching staff generally work from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

C’mon, HCT folks — I appreciate your printing the working conditions, but don’t tell me they’re what I’d find in any other western educational institution — unless, of course, you’re talking about a level far below that of tertiary.

References:

Higher Colleges of Technology. (2010). Working at the HCT. Retrieve (21 Nov 2010) from http://recruit.hct.ac.ae/WebForms/working_at_the_hct.aspx