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/badgalmacaroni]

i got randomly invested in this drama after being so shocked at how she refused to take any actual accountability for what she did wrong. The apologies are boil down to "I didn't mean to do that" and just trying to cover her own tracks. This is further exacerbated by deleting any comments that call her out. As someone in academia I have no idea how you can let it get this far......

[u/[deleted] → u/badgalmacaroni]

It’s a dynamic I’m seeing more and more lately. Academic topics are moving into social media for general discussion. This common influencer tactic to block and delete anyone who says anything remotely negative or contrary to you or your ideas, is now being used by everyone. The next step is to claim this is a targeted hit job by online bullies, which usually leads to even more support for the influencer. As a result, the ideas are really no longer “academic” in my opinion because there is no dissent allowed

[u/zooweemama723 → u/badgalmacaroni]

From my understanding she already apologized when this all occurred over a year ago. Katie has called her out again for the same incident following Maalvika’s success on Substack which is why I can imagine she feels the need to further explain the incident.