Romanian Prime Minister, retired general Nicolae Ciucă, plagiarised his PhD thesis took in 2003 at “Carol I” National Defence University, PressOne reported.
Nicolae Ciuca’s PhD thesis, based on which he became a doctor of military sciences in 2003, includes plagiarized content in at least 42 pages out of a total of 138.
The content of at least 19 pages was plagiarized from two other doctoral theses previously defended at the National Defense University “Carol I” (UNAP), one of them coordinated by the Prime Minister’s supervisor.
With a few exceptions, the detected plagiarized excerpts were copied from print sources, which could not be detected with anti-plagiarism software.
The analysis of the paper revealed – in addition to the word-for-word copying – four classic plagiarism masking techniques used in the prime minister’s thesis.
In a statement sent to PressOne, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă claims that his doctoral thesis “was prepared in accordance with the legal requirements existing at that time”.
Full report on PressOne.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca reacted following accusations that he had plagiarized his doctoral thesis by announcing that he had decided to request the analysis of the paper by the Ethics Commission of UNAp – the Organizing Institution for Doctoral Studies in which the doctoral thesis on Military Sciences was defended. Ciuca claims that public accusations cannot be scientifically supported in any way and that in this field certain phrases / formulations must be standardized.
“Choosing the doctoral thesis topic was predominantly based on personal experience gained in international missions in which I participated directly, individually or together with the 26th Infantry Battalion: UN peacekeeping mission in Angola (1996-1997), NATO mission within the strategic reserve of SACEUR for the Western Balkans (2000-2001) and the Afghanistan Coalition Mission (2002).
Therefore, my doctoral thesis includes, in addition to scientific research and theoretical study, the experience gained in the actual missions and exercises in which I participated, which is obviously the original contribution of a properly developed doctoral thesis.
As a military man, regardless of the position I was assigned, I always fulfilled my duties, respecting the principles, laws and military regulations that govern the activity of the Romanian Army.
The public prosecution alleges that some references in the footnotes do not appear in the bibliographic list. This shows nothing but the fact that the paper was written honestly, the bibliographic source being mentioned in at least one place,” said premier Ciuca.
He added that public accusations cannot be scientifically substantiated in any way, which can be proved by the report of any methodology for detecting similarity, correctly and professionally used. “Standardized phrases and formulations specific to the field of the doctoral thesis (such as “stability pillar” etc.) should not be avoided when dealing with a sensitive subject – such as geopolitics – where semantics must be precise, which is why certain phrases / formulations must be standardized.”
Late this evening “Carol I” National Defence University announced it had kicked off actions to check the plagiarism accusations on Ciuca’s PhD thesis.
“Following the information published in the Media and the request of Mr. Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă, addressed to the National Defense University “Carol I”, we inform you that at the level of our institution legal proceedings have been initiated, through the Commission on University Ethics, to probe into the compliance of the standards of quality and university ethics, regarding the existence of similarities with other scientific papers, within the doctoral thesis entitled ‘The size of the Romanian Army’s engagement in joint multinational operations’, submitted by the author of the dissertation in 2003,” says a statement by the university.