As per media reports, a very prominent academic journal has retracted an article published by a Monash University faculty member.
The article was published in 2019 and after a university investigation, it was noted that the member had plagiarised a student’s work.
Dr Padma Murthi who a senior research fellow in the university’s Department of Pharmacology following an investigation into allegations of plagiarism was found guilty of publishing a significant part of the text in the paper “without knowledge, without consent and without correct attribution of the original author.”
The spokesperson for Monash University said:
“No other complaints have been made against the academic and there is nothing to indicate this has happened before.”
When contacted by The Age, Dr. Murthi claimed no wrongdoing but refused to answer any questions about the incident stating it was “a university matter”.
The retraction statement of the Netherlands-based publisher of the Biochimica et Biophysica Acta peer-reviewed journal reads:
“The publication was retracted by request of the authors following an investigation by Monash University performed following its Procedures for Investigating Code Breaches and in accordance with the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.”
The spokesperson for Monash University said:
“No other complaints have been made against the academic and there is nothing to indicate this has happened before.”
Dr Murthi has some 195 publications to her name and 2684 citations on ResearchGate. She has held several positions at Monash University, University of Melbourne and the Royal Women’s Hospital.
