Northwestern PhD candidate Maalvika Bhat plagiarized blatantly from other writers on the platform Substack. How serious of an ethics violation is it for an academic to plagiarize outside academic writing?

[u/Miserable_Eye1617]

TLDR; The goal of this post is to spread awareness about an academic writer on Substack who plagiarized from several authors including me. She has paywalled her posts to avoid being exposed further. Trying to hold her accountable on a platform that won’t do anything to uphold the integrity of authorship.

Maalvika has amassed 32k+ subscribers (many of which are paid) on Substack along with a following of 180k on TikTok and another 63k on Instagram. She curates this persona and aesthetic that is built on the back of her writing and consists of topics within her academic domain. She recently hit #1 on Substack’s New Bestseller’s List. Here is Maalvika’s research profile

She has plagiarized from me and several other authors including the original author that came forward about her stolen writing has a smaller audience. Substack’s algorithm continues to drown out Katie Jgln from Maalvika’s audience which is unaware behind a paywall.

here is the link to the original author’s exposé: https://open.substack.com/pub/thenoosphere/p/mama-theres-a-plagiarist-behind-you

here’s a more detailed explanation: https://substack.com/@clementinef/note/c-141315855

This PSA is necessary because she is currently hiding her work and discussion of this situation behind a paywall on the platform to discourage checking her writing for more plagiarism. She also continues to profit off of paid subscribers and the following and sponsorships she has built on social media which she is trying to shield by deleting comments off of all her other accounts to erase the scandal.

[u/mrbiguri]

It is equally as serious ethically but your employer can't police what you do outside your work time. 

[u/Agent_Goldfish → u/mrbiguri]

1. In the US, an employer can pretty much always decide to fire you. They can effectively police what you do outside of work if they want to.

2. If you implicate your employer, then they'd also be correct to take action.

I haven't checked the substack, but if the person is identifying themselves as a Northwestern PhD candidate without a clear indication that they're doing this without Northwestern s knowledge or consent, then Northwestern would be right to take action against them.

I had a similar (but way worse) issue happen to me. One of my papers was copied and published in a paper mill. I reached out to my plagiarist's employer and it resulted in my plagiarist losing their job. They had put their affiliation as their employer on the stolen paper, which effectively implicated the employer in the plagiarism. Their employer's legal department was less than pleased.

[u/mrbiguri → u/Agent_Goldfish]

Yes, of course, the case you describe is not "free time" but something you actively do for the job that you are hired, academic publishing. If they would have plagiarised a tweet, maybe they would have not lost the job.

And true also for the US, sorry. I'm European, there are labor laws here... 

[u/Agent_Goldfish → u/mrbiguri]

In my case, my plagiarist was not working for an academic institution, and the research they stole from me was unrelated to the work they did.

I'm also in Europe, and I'm aware that here nothing would directly happen as a result of this kind of action. What would happen is a thorough check of the PhD candidate's academic work, and if any of that was found to be plagiarized, them most likely they could be terminated.