Talk for PhD students and PhD supervisors: #pleasedontstealmywork
Time and date: 22 October 2024, 15.30-17.00
Deadline for registration: 16 October 2024
Who can come? This talk is for PhD supervisors and PhD students at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. Other faculty members are also welcome.
About the talk
In the spring of 2022, the campaign #pleasedontstealmywork washed over Danish universities and in a week the campaign collected 120 testimonies of guest authorships, research theft and abuse of hierarchical power within Danish academia.
The testimonies were predominantly from junior scientists reporting about the misconduct and abuse of power by more senior research colleagues. PhD students wrote about their experiences with colleagues taking the credit for their work or ideas, and about how the management had handled these cases – or rather mishandled the cases of power abuse.
The #pleasedontstealmywork collected 120 testimonies of guest authorships or research theft across disciplines in all universities in Denmark, in only one week. Other recent studies with participants from five European countries have shown that around one third of the PhD students gave unmerited co-authorship to more senior colleagues because of hierarchical pressure or simply that ‘the person in power told them to’. Participants from the medical, natural, and technical sciences were much more likely to state that they granted a guest authorship than those from other faculties.
The aim of this talk is to openly (and without judgment) discuss the culture that has been made visible during the campaign and through recent studies. What are the structural causes and what can we do about it collectively?
About the speaker
Maria Toft is now a former PhD fellow with the Political Science department of the University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on the potential of communities in the green transition, life satisfaction and environmental behavior. She initiated the campaign #pleasedontstealmywork together with the PhD Association Network of Denmark (PAND). Later the same year, she wrote an open letter to the politicians called 'Set Research Free' (about the overall structures of doing research) that gathered 2252 signatories in a week from researchers across disciplines. Recently, she has been the instigator of the free scientists’ movement.
Sounds interesting? Register for the talk here.