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Zsolt Semjén academic misconduct controversy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Zsolt Semjén academic misconduct controversy refers to allegations of plagiarism and multiple submission concerning the 1991 laureatus thesis in theology (converted in 1997 to a PhD in religious studies) and the 1992 sociology diploma thesis of Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary and head of the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) Zsolt Semjén.
On 18 November 2012 Hungarian magazine Heti Világgazdaság published an article which claimed that material that amounts to 40 percent of Semjén's 122 pages long laureatus dissertation (entitled "The challenge of New Age and opportunity for evangelization"), defended in 1991 at the Pázmány Péter Roman Catholic Theological Academy, has been taken from various sources without proper citation.[1]
On 19 November Heti Világgazdaság reported that 32-33 pages of Semjén's 46 pages long sociology diploma thesis (entitled "An attempted interpretation of New Age"), defended in 1992 at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), is overlapping with his laureatus dissertation which he already submitted and defended.[2]
On 26 November Heti Világgazdaság revealed that the second, revised edition of Semjén's 1992 sociology diploma thesis contains 12-13 pages worth of additional material that had in 1993 appeared as an article in the journal Valóság by his thesis advisor, Attila Molnár. According to Heti Világgazdaság, Semjén did dot cite Molnár in his thesis, neither did Molnár refer to Semjén in the 1993 article.[3]
At first Nikosz Fokasz, the head of sociology department and Katalin Tausz, the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Eötvös Loránd University were not planning an inquiry,[4] but on 29 November she announced that a three-member committee is going to investigate the allegations.[5] According to this investigation, concluded on 7 December, Zsolt Semjén has committed serious ethical, professional misconduct, but ELTE is not in the position to take official action.[6] Nevertheless, twelve lecturers at ELTE consider Semjén's thesis invalid until he and Molnár clarify the situation.[7] Heti Világgazdaság calls the investigation incomplete, and criticizes the committee for failing to address important questions such as the issues of self-plagiarism, plagiarism from authors other than Molnár, and the regulations allowing for the submission of a revised edition of a thesis[8]
The Pázmány Péter Catholic University is not investigating the charges against Semjén, and considers the case closed.[9]
The Prime Minister's office called the charges a "campaign of slander",[10] and Christian Democratic politicians and pundits have referred to the allegations as a part of a coordinated attack against Catholics, and against Christianity in general.[11][12][13]
This is the third plagiarism scandal in Hungary involving a high-profile politician in 2012, following that of Pál Schmitt (see Pál Schmitt academic misconduct controversy) – which led to Schmitt's resignation as President of Hungary –, and former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány (see Ferenc Gyurcsány plagiarism controversy), in whose case plagiarism remained unproven as his dissertation couldn't be found.