The Interior Minister, Lucian Bode, claims that he has sued the Babeș Bolyai University of Cluj because “the University’s Ethics Commission can carry out checks only against members of the university community, as defined by law, a community to be which I I do not belong”. Bode also says, in a point of view for G4Media.ro, that he sent a notification to Babeș-Bolyai University to clarify some aspects of the legality of his doctoral thesis reanalysis procedure, notification to which he would not receive a response .
Journalist Emilia Șercan revealed, in a text published on pressone.ro, that Interior Minister Lucian Bode sued, on January 5, the Ethics Commission of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca (UBB ), in -a desperate attempt to block the issuing of a foreseeable verdict of plagiarism on his doctoral thesis.
PressOne exclusively revealed on 24 November 2022 that Home Secretary Lucian Bode’s doctoral thesis contains at least 18.5% plagiarized text, as well as 6 completely plagiarized illustrations and another 30 misquoted.
On the same day, UBB announced in a press release that it was re-examining, after “taking note of new information that has appeared in the public space about new suspicions of plagiarism in Mr. Lucian Bode’s thesis”, but also the fact that the Ethics commission “he has self-reported and will analyze the thesis from the point of view of academic ethics on the basis of this new information”.
Below we reproduce in full the point of view transmitted by Lucian Bode:
“As you know, I have shown, on every occasion, total openness to the requests of the Babeș-Bolyai University Ethics Commission regarding my doctoral thesis.
Through all the steps I’ve taken up to this point, I’ve pursued only one thing: upholding the law. I also believe that my doctoral thesis does not contain unauthorized loans, all loans being highlighted by indicating it in the footnotes and in the list of references, according to the editorial rules in force at the time of submission of the thesis.
I reiterate the fact that, in recent years, my doctoral thesis has gone through absolutely all the phases of analysis and successfully passed all the verification filters. It has been verified against plagiarism by Babeș-Bolyai University and the National Council for the Attestation of University Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates (CNATDCU), and both institutions have officially certified the work’s authenticity.
The UBB Ethics Commission recently asked me to present a point of view on a non-academic approach, devoid of scientific relevance, however, scrolling through its contents, I did not identify concrete elements to which I had to answer or that I had to justify them.
The procedure you are referring to actually involved two distinct steps:
First of all, I sent a notification to Babeș-Bolyai University to clarify some legal aspects regarding the procedure of (re)analysis of my doctoral thesis, notification to which I have not received a reply.
The next natural step was to address, through the lawyers who assist me in relation to this matter, a request to the administrative litigation judge, to ensure that all the proceedings carried out by the Ethics Commission are in full compliance with the law. Especially since, by law, the University Ethics Commission can only carry out checks against members of the university community, as defined by law, a community of which I am not a part.
Also according to the law, I initiated this last step, of filing the request in court, in the court of Sălaj, the county where I live.
As I have already demonstrated on other occasions, I am determined to fully support any initiative of the Babeș-Bolyai University, as long as it is within the limits of the law and pursues legitimate interests”.
Context
Both the rector of the UBB, Daniel David, and the president of the Ethics Commission, Dacian Dragoș, have publicly announced that the UBB will call on international experts for this new analysis of the scientific work of the interior minister, on the basis of which he obtained in 2018 – under the coordination of university professor Adrian Ivan, rector of the SRI Academy – doctoral degree.
Previously, at the end of October 2022, the “Babeș-Bolyai” University had established with a decision – viewed with suspicion in the public space, since the plagiarism analysis was limited and did not cover the entire thesis – that only the 2 95% of Lucian Bode’s work is plagiarized, content he excused, leniently, by the PhD student’s “lack of knowledge/application of citation techniques.”
Shortly after the Ubb Ethics Commission made public the decision announcing the negligible percentage of plagiarized content of 2.95%, the Minister of the Interior “welcomed” on his Facebook page, almost excitedly, “the publication of the results of the evaluation of the Ubb”.
“UBB’s verdict: My doctoral thesis is in order and the doctoral title awarded in 2019 is maintained. Recently, UBB ruled on compliance with the norms of academic writing in my doctoral thesis, and the result of the verification does not in any way change the initial assessments of the thesis,” Bode wrote on Facebook.
Journalist Emilia Șercan notes that, two months later, “after presenting overwhelming evidence that in the interior minister’s doctoral thesis there is at least 18.5% plagiarized content – mainly through translation from English – without respecting citation and attribution rules, Lucian Bode moved from a “salute” to the UBB Ethics Commission to a lawsuit on January 5, 2023.”
The trial opened by Minister Lucian Bode four days ago, in the Sălaj Court, Administrative and Fiscal Litigation Section, concerns the decision with which the UBB Ethics Commission self-deferred on December 13, 2022, 19 days after my publication, for the first time, evidence showing that the Interior Minister has plagiarized at least 18.5% of his doctoral thesis.