Russian politics faces epidemic of Ph.D. plagiarism

Researchers have exposed widespread Ph.D. plagiarism among Russian regional governors, which they say is part of a broader culture of academic corruption in a country where ghostwriters are routinely hired to win the rich and powerful the prestige boost of a doctorate. Checking hundreds of dissertations online against other text revealed that about half of those governors who had a Ph.D. had committed plagiarism, according to two Russian-born academics based in Germany. In one...