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| Scholarly Fraud, Ethics, Law and Cultural Heritage from the Perspectives of Archaeology as a Humanistic Discipline |
© 2008-2010 International Institute of Anthropology
© 2008-2010 Lolita Nikolova, PhD
Last updated: 8-11-10.
© 2008-2010 Lolita Nikolova, PhD
Last updated: 8-11-10.
Internal link:
Two Professors with DrHab from Bulgaria promote academic fraud with German funds:
http://www.iianthropology.org/arch_struma_symposium_2004.html
Testing for academic fraud in historiography on Balkan Prehistory
External link:
Anti-fraud International
http://antifraudintl.org/
Eckstein, Max A (2003). Combating academic fraud. Towards a culture of integrity. International Institute for Educational Planning: Paris.
Resources: Archaeology, Collaboration, and Ethics
http://archaeology-ce.info/resources.html
For comment contact:: lnikolova@iianthropology.org
Preliminary note: It is such a good luck for me to be an archaeologist! In this field I have met the most wonderful people in the world. But it
occurs that the archaeology has been also invaded my people who do not have humanistic goals and their behavior contrast to all academic
and humanistic principals. And such people are not visibly negative personalities. They can be for while even your closest friends because we,
the archaeologists, in principal accept everybody friendly. Should we make the distance bigger between us, or just we need to change
something? Our history of society and especially of the American democratic society shows that there is only one way to develop the progress -
to keep and develop integrity and immediately to reveal the corruption. There is a problem in archaeology - the network of invisibly connected
people who has been using any sorts of means to prevent in many cases the truth to come out, who have been using the academic life and
publications for personal non-academic goals. Such people that we can name scholar negators, can slow but cannot stop the progress
because usually they gain only temporary success. The whole human history is a history of a society in which always dominates the progress -
because there are always smart people who know what to learn from history and how to fight for progress.
Argument:
The topic is a result of some most recent archaeological publications in which authors purposefully had hidden basic literature, misleading the
readers, misinterpreting scholar works and even publishing suspicious archaeological information. In addition, today it looks we you can print
for instance, in Romania but to write printed in the USA. Some social practices depart from the ethical rules of WAC and EAA. What to do and
how to save the professional archaeology? What should be the self-awareness of archaeologists?
Equally important today is the question: Who in fact saves the archaeological heritage? It concerns the way the museums and scholars react
on the attempts the social and cultural spaces to be occupied not by exhibits of prestige and well documented finds, but by finds without clear
provenance and source of origin. Does such tendency, an example of which is the traveling finds from the private collection of Vassil Bozhkov,
correspond to the understanding of the archaeological treasures and as common human heritage or just stimulate treasure-hunters, the
"black" archaeology and corruption in society.
Reflections to academic corruption:
The corruption mechanism of academism is by constructing of knowledge through specific personalities. In some universities this selection
starts from the first year students. This is a case in which the one who directs the student and orient the student in the department is a
husband of the Chair department. It is paradox how one family secure 100K and more by very careful selection. Will such family prefer
independent thinking students, for instance?
Reference to fraud and society:
David Cerny and his Entropa exhibit in Brussels
Internal link: Scandal with the exhibit of David Cerny in Brussels
http://www.iianthropology.org/bgdavidcerny
Alexa Allows Constitutional Rights To Be Violated, by Paul Coonan at
http://www.rense.com/general49/const.htm Fraud and Government
http://www.8009endfraud.com/?gclid=COfQgfejpZcCFQ0xawodCWcmow
Internet Surfers Alliance Against Fraud at
http://www.acronymfinder.com/Internet-Surfers-Alliance-Against-Fraud-(ISAAF).html
Reference to Academic Fraud
It starts from the student bench:
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/info/regist/fraud_e.html
including misrepresenting an academic evaluation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dishonesty
Links:
http://iberry.com/cms/Fraud.htm
References to the exhibit of Vassil Bozhkov in Brussels:
http://www.iianthropology.org/antigrandeurofbulgaria
Some other readings:
H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, Volume 13 Page 138
THE NEGATORS OF SCIENCE [Lucifer, Vol. VIII, No. 44, April, 1891, pp. 89-98]
On this webpage will be gathered data about the topic. In preparations are data about the following case studies under investigation but with
clear signs of scholar and publishing fraud:
Bisserka Gaydarska and her book Landscape, Material culture and Society in Prehistoric South East Bulgaria (BAR International Series 1618,
2007)
(Review notes)
I am waiting for the response from Ms Bisserka Gaydarska to answer me the following questions sent by e-mail on July 21st 2008.
Meanwhile immediate responses (July 23rd 2008) were received by Professor Robin Coningham (the Head of the Archaeology Department at
the University of Durham) and Dr Mark White (Active Head of Archaeology Department at the University of Durham) who informed me that Ms
Bisserka Gaydarska was on field and would not be back before September when the case could be researched. In second e-mail Professor
Coningham did not answer the posed questions. Initially I thought to send a letter, but a web information was published about Ms Bisserka
Gaydarska that she is a regular attendee of the EAA Meeting, so in a special e-mail Durham was informed that I will wait the EAA meeting in
Trento to try to ask Ms Bisserka Gaydarska directly my questions.
My questions to Ms Bisserka Gaydarska>
1. Who is the responsible editor of her book?
2. Did she use my book "The Balkans in Later Prehistory" (BAR 1999). If so, why was it not cited? If not - why if it covers her region of
investigations and how she made the statement in p. 10: Bronze Age investigations in Bulgaria suffer a great lack of general studies in
comparing to the preceding periods.
3. How does she understand ethics in archaeology?
4. Did I ever reject her any consultations about Bronze Age in Bulgaria? Did she ask me about this period?
E-mails were also sent to the Head of the Department of Archaeology, University of Durham for clarification of the case and for a commission
who should compare both books Balkans in Later Prehistory and Landscape, Material Culture and Society in Prehistoric South East Bulgaria
and to answer if the dissertation, respectively the book by Bisserka Gaydarska is as academic violence (She e is honorary staff member of the
Department of Archaeology that means that she has an access to students) if the author obviously used the book but had not cited.
While we are waiting for a response from Durham, some points regarding the book that may explain while the culmination is a scholar fraud:
While waiting for a response from Durham, we will make some points regarding the book of Dr Bisserka Gaydarska (BAR 1618, 2007):
1. There are missing titles in the books which were either obviously read under the table, or were not known despite are the most basic for the
topic: the study on Balkan Prehistoric chronology by Y. Boyadzhiev and J. Görsdorf, the big Doctor thesis of Anna Raduncheva on the prehistoric
society from Bulgaria, and most curiously – even my book in collaboration with Cristian Schuster and Igor Manzura, The Balkans in Later
Prehistory. Another comic moment - the author states that Krassimir Leshtakov has just recently preparing study on Bronze Age while he has a
published comparative study for Southeast Bulgaria which is also on the list of the obligatory references.
2. There are no correlations between the data from the variety of sources used which is obligatory for any PhD thesis. The published pages are
like pieces cut from different cakes and put in a box – no homogeneous scholar story with theses, arguments and conclusions.
3. The goals and objectives in the book are not covered by the text and from the beginning they look impossible to be realized.
4. There is missing a Catalogue in this book, which looks non-academic in light of the increased request for high quality of the archaeological
literature. It is just impossible a regional study without a Catalogue of the sites.
5. I even could not find any map of the archaeological sites researched in the book. Some maps include Cyrillic names of sites and cannot be
correlated with each other even if you know Bulgarian.
See review notes at http://www.iianthropology.org/iialibrarybigaydarska
Vassil Nikolov and Culture and Art in Prehistoric Thrace (Letera, Plovdiv 2006)
Questions were sent to Letera Publishers but no response was received. On the phone on of the clerks told me that the book by Vassil Nikolov
was sponsored by Letera. We have been still waiting for answer.
Martin Hristov and his publication in Archaeology about Dubene-Balinov Gorun
The story is very popular and well known from Corruption in Society.
Bibliography
Kerlinger, F.N. & Lee, H.B. (2000). Foundations of Behavioural Research. 4th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Two Professors with DrHab from Bulgaria promote academic fraud with German funds:
http://www.iianthropology.org/arch_struma_symposium_2004.html
Testing for academic fraud in historiography on Balkan Prehistory
External link:
Anti-fraud International
http://antifraudintl.org/
Eckstein, Max A (2003). Combating academic fraud. Towards a culture of integrity. International Institute for Educational Planning: Paris.
Resources: Archaeology, Collaboration, and Ethics
http://archaeology-ce.info/resources.html
For comment contact:: lnikolova@iianthropology.org
Preliminary note: It is such a good luck for me to be an archaeologist! In this field I have met the most wonderful people in the world. But it
occurs that the archaeology has been also invaded my people who do not have humanistic goals and their behavior contrast to all academic
and humanistic principals. And such people are not visibly negative personalities. They can be for while even your closest friends because we,
the archaeologists, in principal accept everybody friendly. Should we make the distance bigger between us, or just we need to change
something? Our history of society and especially of the American democratic society shows that there is only one way to develop the progress -
to keep and develop integrity and immediately to reveal the corruption. There is a problem in archaeology - the network of invisibly connected
people who has been using any sorts of means to prevent in many cases the truth to come out, who have been using the academic life and
publications for personal non-academic goals. Such people that we can name scholar negators, can slow but cannot stop the progress
because usually they gain only temporary success. The whole human history is a history of a society in which always dominates the progress -
because there are always smart people who know what to learn from history and how to fight for progress.
Argument:
The topic is a result of some most recent archaeological publications in which authors purposefully had hidden basic literature, misleading the
readers, misinterpreting scholar works and even publishing suspicious archaeological information. In addition, today it looks we you can print
for instance, in Romania but to write printed in the USA. Some social practices depart from the ethical rules of WAC and EAA. What to do and
how to save the professional archaeology? What should be the self-awareness of archaeologists?
Equally important today is the question: Who in fact saves the archaeological heritage? It concerns the way the museums and scholars react
on the attempts the social and cultural spaces to be occupied not by exhibits of prestige and well documented finds, but by finds without clear
provenance and source of origin. Does such tendency, an example of which is the traveling finds from the private collection of Vassil Bozhkov,
correspond to the understanding of the archaeological treasures and as common human heritage or just stimulate treasure-hunters, the
"black" archaeology and corruption in society.
Reflections to academic corruption:
The corruption mechanism of academism is by constructing of knowledge through specific personalities. In some universities this selection
starts from the first year students. This is a case in which the one who directs the student and orient the student in the department is a
husband of the Chair department. It is paradox how one family secure 100K and more by very careful selection. Will such family prefer
independent thinking students, for instance?
Reference to fraud and society:
David Cerny and his Entropa exhibit in Brussels
Internal link: Scandal with the exhibit of David Cerny in Brussels
http://www.iianthropology.org/bgdavidcerny
Alexa Allows Constitutional Rights To Be Violated, by Paul Coonan at
http://www.rense.com/general49/const.htm Fraud and Government
http://www.8009endfraud.com/?gclid=COfQgfejpZcCFQ0xawodCWcmow
Internet Surfers Alliance Against Fraud at
http://www.acronymfinder.com/Internet-Surfers-Alliance-Against-Fraud-(ISAAF).html
Reference to Academic Fraud
It starts from the student bench:
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/info/regist/fraud_e.html
including misrepresenting an academic evaluation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dishonesty
Links:
http://iberry.com/cms/Fraud.htm
References to the exhibit of Vassil Bozhkov in Brussels:
http://www.iianthropology.org/antigrandeurofbulgaria
Some other readings:
H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, Volume 13 Page 138
THE NEGATORS OF SCIENCE [Lucifer, Vol. VIII, No. 44, April, 1891, pp. 89-98]
On this webpage will be gathered data about the topic. In preparations are data about the following case studies under investigation but with
clear signs of scholar and publishing fraud:
Bisserka Gaydarska and her book Landscape, Material culture and Society in Prehistoric South East Bulgaria (BAR International Series 1618,
2007)
(Review notes)
I am waiting for the response from Ms Bisserka Gaydarska to answer me the following questions sent by e-mail on July 21st 2008.
Meanwhile immediate responses (July 23rd 2008) were received by Professor Robin Coningham (the Head of the Archaeology Department at
the University of Durham) and Dr Mark White (Active Head of Archaeology Department at the University of Durham) who informed me that Ms
Bisserka Gaydarska was on field and would not be back before September when the case could be researched. In second e-mail Professor
Coningham did not answer the posed questions. Initially I thought to send a letter, but a web information was published about Ms Bisserka
Gaydarska that she is a regular attendee of the EAA Meeting, so in a special e-mail Durham was informed that I will wait the EAA meeting in
Trento to try to ask Ms Bisserka Gaydarska directly my questions.
My questions to Ms Bisserka Gaydarska>
1. Who is the responsible editor of her book?
2. Did she use my book "The Balkans in Later Prehistory" (BAR 1999). If so, why was it not cited? If not - why if it covers her region of
investigations and how she made the statement in p. 10: Bronze Age investigations in Bulgaria suffer a great lack of general studies in
comparing to the preceding periods.
3. How does she understand ethics in archaeology?
4. Did I ever reject her any consultations about Bronze Age in Bulgaria? Did she ask me about this period?
E-mails were also sent to the Head of the Department of Archaeology, University of Durham for clarification of the case and for a commission
who should compare both books Balkans in Later Prehistory and Landscape, Material Culture and Society in Prehistoric South East Bulgaria
and to answer if the dissertation, respectively the book by Bisserka Gaydarska is as academic violence (She e is honorary staff member of the
Department of Archaeology that means that she has an access to students) if the author obviously used the book but had not cited.
While we are waiting for a response from Durham, some points regarding the book that may explain while the culmination is a scholar fraud:
While waiting for a response from Durham, we will make some points regarding the book of Dr Bisserka Gaydarska (BAR 1618, 2007):
1. There are missing titles in the books which were either obviously read under the table, or were not known despite are the most basic for the
topic: the study on Balkan Prehistoric chronology by Y. Boyadzhiev and J. Görsdorf, the big Doctor thesis of Anna Raduncheva on the prehistoric
society from Bulgaria, and most curiously – even my book in collaboration with Cristian Schuster and Igor Manzura, The Balkans in Later
Prehistory. Another comic moment - the author states that Krassimir Leshtakov has just recently preparing study on Bronze Age while he has a
published comparative study for Southeast Bulgaria which is also on the list of the obligatory references.
2. There are no correlations between the data from the variety of sources used which is obligatory for any PhD thesis. The published pages are
like pieces cut from different cakes and put in a box – no homogeneous scholar story with theses, arguments and conclusions.
3. The goals and objectives in the book are not covered by the text and from the beginning they look impossible to be realized.
4. There is missing a Catalogue in this book, which looks non-academic in light of the increased request for high quality of the archaeological
literature. It is just impossible a regional study without a Catalogue of the sites.
5. I even could not find any map of the archaeological sites researched in the book. Some maps include Cyrillic names of sites and cannot be
correlated with each other even if you know Bulgarian.
See review notes at http://www.iianthropology.org/iialibrarybigaydarska
Vassil Nikolov and Culture and Art in Prehistoric Thrace (Letera, Plovdiv 2006)
Questions were sent to Letera Publishers but no response was received. On the phone on of the clerks told me that the book by Vassil Nikolov
was sponsored by Letera. We have been still waiting for answer.
Martin Hristov and his publication in Archaeology about Dubene-Balinov Gorun
The story is very popular and well known from Corruption in Society.
Bibliography
Kerlinger, F.N. & Lee, H.B. (2000). Foundations of Behavioural Research. 4th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace.
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