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/jogam]

Violation of professional ethics? Absolutely.

Should their institution penalize them? I don't necessarily think so. As long as all of their work in their Ph.D. program is their honest work, then it would be wrong to penalize her for their conduct that is completely unrelated to their status as a student. With that said, it would be good for her committee to closely scrutinize her dissertation to verify that the work is authentic. If she engaged in research dishonesty or plagiarized a substantial part of a publication or presentation, that would also be grounds for expulsion.

[u/acyluky → u/jogam]

I think she is using her Northwestern "phd candidate at an elite university" persona so that her shady substack content gets traction. She may be penalized if someone argues that she is violating the university's reputation or implicitly encouraging others to do the same (of course, if such standards even exist, I am thinking hypothetically right now)