Another Harvard employee accused of plagiarism: 'Especially worrisome'

A Harvard Extension School employee was accused of plagiarism in a 42-count anonymous complaint submitted to administrators, according to a report.

In the complaint, Harvard Extension School administrator Shirley R. Greene was accused of plagiarizing 42 times in her 2008 dissertation at the University of Michigan, according to the Harvard Crimson.

According to the report, Greene’s dissertation compares her summary of Jean Kim’s theory of Asian American ethnic identity formation along with a summary that was similar to  Janelle Lee Woo’s 2004 Ph.D. dissertation, but Greene didn’t cite Woo.

The complaint was sent to the chair of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ professional conduct committee at the Cambridge, Massachusetts institution on Friday, according to the report.

In another instance, Greene’s dissertation contains a table comparing “ethnic identity development” stages that were suggested in five scholars’ models, according to the report. Her dissertation displays a table that was similarly formatted and contained similar descriptions of academic concepts.

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Jonathan Bailey, who operates the Plagiarism Today blog told the outlet that portions of the complaint were “especially worrisome” while some were “plain silly.”

Bailey said, though, that the allegations are “definitely enough” to “warrant a thorough review of this dissertation.”

He added that a good portion of the allegations “either don’t prove plagiarism or only point to very minor errors.”

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The new complaint comes as several allegations of plagiarism have been leveled at Harvard employees, as Campus Reform reported.

The most notable allegations of plagiarism were leveled at Claudine Gay, who resigned as president of the institution in early January.