Nearly 30 percent of the content of reports authored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taoyuan mayoral candidate Simon Chang (張善政) for a research project at Acer had apparently been copied from other sources without providing references, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday, presenting its initial investigation report following plagiarism accusations against the company’s former vice president.
The council, which funded the research with a NT$57.36 million (US$1.83 million at the current exchange rate) grant from 2007 to 2009, asked Chang and his former employer to provide an explanation before the end of the month, COA Deputy Minister Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) told a news conference.
The council would form an ad hoc committee to assess the explanation, and if it determines it was copyright infringement, it would seek compensation from Chang and the company, Chen said.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
It would also demand that Acer return the grant, he added.
All 21 reports contained copied passages without references to the original authors, including some that were “straight-up copy-and-paste,” Chen said.
Six reports have an especially high share of such passages, he added.
The council used plagiarism detection software iThenticate, which is also used by Taiwan’s leading universities and research institutes, he said.
COA officials said they reached the conclusion after manually comparing the reports and materials Chang allegedly copied from.
Chang, who served as premier from February to May 2016, headed the Acer project seeking to “enhance e-commerce for Taiwan’s agriculture sector.”
The plagiarism accusations first emerged last month when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said the Acer reports were a hodgepodge of plagiarized material, with many passages copied verbatim from other sources without providing citations.
A 2009 report, funded with NT$1.7 million, contained many passages apparently copied from a 2006 National Communications Commission report authored by scientists at the Industrial Technology Research Institute, Chen said.
“The council has found instances of suspected copyright infringement... The 21 reports contain text, figures and illustrations that match those in previously published reports, journals and other materials. The [Acer] reports did not provide references,” Chen said.
Chang’s campaign office yesterday said in a statement that “Chang has been calmly facing the accusations and will continue to cooperate with the council.”
He would provide written explanations as requested, it added.
Chang’s political opponents in the Taoyuan mayoral race have accused him of dodging the accusations, adding that Chang does not answer questions about the issue and his campaign has not held a news conference about it.
During a campaign event on Monday last week, Chang told reporters: “I have faced this issue openly, there is nothing to discuss. There is no plagiarism.”
Chang later reiterated his statement, adding that it is “proper and reasonable to use published materials” when compiling reports, citing the Copyright Act (著作權法).
Earlier this week, Chang said a nondisclosure agreement he had signed with the COA would not allow him to provide more information on the issue.
The council yesterday denied that there is such an agreement.
After the COA news conference, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said: “This issue is now clear... We ask for no more cover-ups. Chang should explain himself on the allegations.”
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