Fending Off a Plagiarist should raise the ire of anyone with a doctorate:
Some years ago, just after I defended my dissertation, I received a call from Mr. X. He had read one of my publications, and because we were studying the same African social movement, asked whether I had written anything else on the topic. An innocent enough question. I’ve made similar requests myself.Since my dissertation was not yet bound in my university’s library, I put a copy of it on a disk and mailed it off to him. I put his name and address in my Rolodex and kept a lookout for his work.
Last summer I discovered that he had defended his dissertation three years after I defended mine. I requested a copy of it through interlibrary loan. As soon as the dissertation was in my hands, I flipped first to the bibliography to see which of my works he had cited. Yes, I’m vain.
“Humph. He didn’t cite my dissertation,” I thought. I flipped to the table of contents. “Wow, he asked the same questions I did.” I read the abstract. “Damn. Those are my words.”
My heart pounded. This was my dissertation!