UK psychiatrist suspended for plagiarism

Written byBob Grant

| 2 min read

One of Great Britain's most media savvy psychiatrists, who confessed to linkurl:plagiarizing;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54641/ other authors in articles he wrote in newspapers and medical journals, has been suspended from practicing psychiatry for three months. The UK's linkurl:General Medical Council;http://www.gmc-uk.org/ (GMC) suspended linkurl:Raj Persaud,;http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7457091.stm a frequent commentator on British television and linkurl:radio shows,;http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/allinthemind.shtml after he admitted, to a GMC disciplinary panel, lifting words from other authors without proper attribution in 2004 and 2005. Persaud denied purposeful dishonesty. "At the time, given the stress I was under, given the deadlines and my other work, I thought I was adequately attributing work," Persaud told the panel. The GMC panel found that Persaud was guilty of plagiarism in a total of five articles, two of which he wrote for the __British Medical Journal__. linkurl:According;http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/336/7658/1394-c?etoc to the __BMJ__, the first was an August 2005 linkurl:review;http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/331/7512/356 of a linkurl:book;http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Shocked-World-Stanley/dp/0738203998 by University of Maryland social psychologist linkurl:Thomas Blass;http://www.stanleymilgram.com/blass/ that the __BMJ__ later linkurl:retracted,;http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7512/356/DC1 and the other was rejected by the journal in December 2005 after Persaud had already been accused of plagiarism. Persaud wrote another article containing plagiarized passages in the February 2005 issue of __Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry__. That article was retracted when Blass linkurl:accused;http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/nov/07/highereducation.research Persaud of copying his work. The GMC began investigating Persaud when he ran afoul of The Church of Scientology, which holds that the entire field of psychology is fraudulent. A 2005 Independent article in which Persaud criticized Scientology's founder, L Ron Hubbard, was found to contain plagiarized passages. After the article was published, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which was founded by The Church of Scientology, brought a formal complaint to the GMC. The panel also determined that Persaud committed plagiarism in his 2003 book linkurl:__From the Edge of the Couch__.;http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edge-Couch-Raj-Persaud/dp/0553813463 While being investigated by the GMC panel, Persaud has continued to publish articles in both popular and scientific media, including a linkurl:story;http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18725101.400-deception-special-the-truth-about-lies.html on researchers studying humans' ability to detect deception in the __New Scientist__, entitled "The truth about lies." In a statement from the linkurl:Medical Protection Society;http://www.medicalprotection.org/uk issued on Persaud's behalf, the psychiatrist said: "I am saddened by the findings and decision of the GMC... As I said during the Hearing, I accept that my use of the work of some authors lacked adequate acknowledgement. I have apologised repeatedly for this during the hearing, and I apologise for this now. I am saddened that this occurred while I was seeking to promote the work of academics to the wider public."

Meet the Author

Bob Grant

From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.

View Full Profile

UK psychiatrist suspended for plagiarism

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Meet the Author

Bob Grant

Related Research Resources

What Is the Amniotic Fluid Composed of?

Research Resources

Podcasts

Webinars

Videos

Infographics

eBooks

Skip the Wait for Protein Stability Data with Aunty

An Automated DNA-to-Data Framework for Production-Scale Sequencing

Exploring Cellular Organization with Spatial Proteomics

Organoid Origins and How to Grow Them

Products

Product News

Nuclera eProtein Discovery System installed at leading Universities in Taiwan

BRANDTECH Scientific Introduces the Transferpette® pro Micropipette: A New Twist on Comfort and Control

Biotium Launches GlycoLiner™ Cell Surface Glycoprotein Labeling Kits for Rapid and Selective Cell Surface Imaging

Thermo Scientific X and S Series General Purpose Centrifuges