The Pál Schmitt academic misconduct scandal refers to allegations of plagiarism concerning the 1992 doctoral thesis and the circumstances of the doctoral defence of the President of Hungary Pál Schmitt, which led to Schmitt's resignation from his presidential post. The scandal broke in January 2012, when Hungarian news organizations published a number of articles claiming that about 197 pages of Schmitt's 215-page thesis had been lifted from works by other, foreign scholars, without giving appropriate credit.

On 11 January 2012, Hungarian magazine Heti Világgazdaság published an article which claimed that material that amounts to around 180 of the 215 pages of Pál Schmitt's 1992 doctoral (dr. univ.) thesis, titled "Az újkori olimpiai játékok programjának elemzése" ("An analysis of the programme of the modern Olympics"), had been lifted from a 1987 manuscript by Bulgarian sports researcher Nikolay Georgiev, together with a page's worth of material from a work by Hristo Meranzov and Georgiev. On 19 January, news organizations found that an additional 17 pages had been copied from a paper by German sport sociologist Klaus Heinemann. The late Georgiev's daughter said she did not know of any cooperation between Schmitt and her father in the preparation of Georgiev's work. Heinemann denied any knowledge of Schmitt, and expressed his concerns about the plagiarism allegations.

Further concerns about a conflict of interest were raised when it was reported that multiple members of Schmitt's thesis committee had also been members of the Hungarian Olympic Academy and the Hungarian Olympic Committee, organizations both headed by Schmitt at the time his title was awarded.

After the initial report, Schmitt denied the allegations, saying that no plagiarism took place, as he had listed Georgiev's work in the list of works cited. The President made no further comments, including any comments about the allegation regarding the Heinemann text, until a radio interview in which he shrugged off the claim, saying that it was natural for all such works to include a certain amount of common "core material". A number of scholars started a petition asking for a fair and transparent investigation of the allegations. Although they have PhD degrees, Hungarian news agency Magyar Távirati Iroda (MTI) referred to them as doctoral students.

After a formal investigation, a five-member fact finding committee at Semmelweis University delivered a report on 27 March. The University Council advised the University Senate to withdraw Schmitt's doctorate title. The University Senate withdrew Schmitt's title on 29 March. On 2 April, Schmitt announced to the Hungarian Parliament that he would resign as president.

Background

Pál Schmitt

Schmitt was a successful fencer in his youth, winning two gold medals at the Summer Olympic Games. Later, he served as an ambassador during the 1990s, and he was a Member of the European Parliament with the Fidesz party from 2004 to 2010. After briefly serving as Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary in 2010, Schmitt was elected as President of Hungary in a 263 to 59 vote in the Parliament of Hungary; he was sworn in as president on 2010.

From 1983 to 1988 Schmitt was the general secretary of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, and in 1981–1990 he was undersecretary for sport. In 1990, after the end of Communism in Hungary, he became president of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, a post he held until 2010.

Faculty of Sport Sciences, Semmelweis University

Founded in 1769, Semmelweis University is the oldest medical school in Hungary, located in Budapest. Becoming an independent medical school after the Second World War it developed into a university teaching medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, health sciences, health management, and following the merger with the University of Physical Education, physical education and sport sciences. The university is named after Ignác Semmelweis.

Today's Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at the Semmelweis University was founded in 1925 as a separate institution, Hungarian Royal Physical Education College. Between 1945 and 1989 it operated under the name of Hungarian College of Physical Education, and in 1989 it became the Hungarian University of Physical Education. In 2000 the previously independent university became part of the Semmelweis University as the Faculty of Sport Sciences.

Dr. Univ. versus PhD Until 1993 the only doctoral title Hungarian universities could award was the doctor universitatis, or dr. univ., title. It was not considered to be an academic degree. The so-called candidate's degree (C.Sc.) was the first post-graduate scientific degree, and it was issued by the Committee of Scientific Qualifications of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The requirements for the univ. dr. title were generally below the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) requirements, while those of the candidate's degree were above the PhD level. In 1993, the PhD degree was introduced in Hungary, and the universities had the jurisdiction to convert dr. univ. degrees to PhD doctorates on a case-by-case basis, if they met the necessary requirements. (The conversion of the candidate's titles had been automatic, on request.) Schmitt's degree was not converted, although his CV on the website of the EU Parliament states that he has a PhD. In 2012, his CV on the IOC website also listed his title as "doctor of philosophy."

Allegations of misconduct

Plagiarism

On 11 January 2012, Heti Világgazdaság published an article claiming that most of Schmitt's 1992 thesis, 180 of the 215 pages, was almost a word-for-word translation of parts of Bulgarian sport scholar and diplomat Nikolay Georgiev's 465-page 1987 French-language manuscript Analyse du programme olympique (des Jeux d’Olympiade), and it also contained a page worth of material from the 1985 work Analysis of the Olympic Programme by Hristo Meranzov and Nikolay Georgiev. The site also published a 12-page PDF document containing excerpts from both Georgiev's manuscript and Schmitt's dissertation for comparison. Heti Világgazdaság remarked that Schmitt's dissertation did not contain in-body citations, only a bibliography listing 21 pieces of literature. In this bibliography the place of publication of Georgiev's manuscript was erroneously given as Bulgaria, instead of Lausanne, Switzerland, and the title of the work was given in Hungarian, although Georgiev's work has not been published in Hungary. The piece also reported that the dissertation contains a multitude of spelling mistakes, some mistranslations and erroneous statements that were present in Georgiev's manuscript. Though the reviewers of the dissertation, István Kertész and Ferenc Takács, had multiple issues regarding the dissertation, both of them gave the work summa cum laude, the highest rating that can be awarded.

On 18 January Schmitt gave a radio interview in which he stated that around 30–35 pages in his thesis was material original to him and contained conclusions drawn from the "core material". (See below.) In response, Heti Világgazdaság reported that, in contrast to what Schmitt stated in the radio interview, the Conclusions section of his thesis (a single page) is also mostly part of the material that had been lifted from Georgiev's work.

On 19 January, the news portal Index reported that parts of the remaining 35 pages of Schmitt's dissertation were translated and copied from German sport sociologist Klaus Heinemann's 1991 work The Economics of Sport: The Institution of Modern Sport as an Area of Economic Competition. A reference to this work was found in Schmitt's Bibliography, but again, the title was translated into Hungarian, where no such translation existed. Later that day, Heti Világgazdaság—in possession of the text of Schmitt's dissertation—confirmed that a direct translation of eight out of the nine pages of Heinemann's work amounts to further 17 pages of Schmitt's dissertation. Heti Világgazdaság published another five-page PDF document comparing Heinemann's work and Schmitt's dissertation.

On 6 March Heti Világgazdaság announced that they have identified further sources. According to Heti Világgazdaság the first few pages of Schmitt's dissertation contain text from a 1990 educational brochure (The Olympic Movement / Le Mouvement Olympique) published by the International Olympic Committee. Though the Bibliography section of the dissertation contains a reference to this work, it is given in Hungarian and with incorrectly specified bibliographic information. Text drawn from the Olympic Charter (1992) has also been found in Schmitt's work. Heti Világgazdaság also reported that the seven tables and two charts that make up the appendix of Schmitt's dissertation have also been taken from Georgiev's 1987 manuscript Analyse du programme olympique, without proper attribution of authorship.

The original Heti Világgazdaság research that broke the controversy was done by an anonymous freelancer, and regular commenter on the Heti Világgazdaság website, over a stretch of nine months, with interruptions. The origins of the remaining circa 18 pages are not known, but the staff of Heti Világgazdaság were researching whether they are Schmitt's own work or not.

Further plagiarized sources were identified by readers of the website Index on 29 March. Among others, Schmitt included word-by-word translations from a work by IOC member Anita DeFrantz without referencing it at all. (DeFrantz happens to be the one who recommended Schmitt's daughter Petra for a University of Southern California tennis scholarship during the Salt Lake City Olympic bid. Petra Schmitt went on to make All-American of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.)

Thesis committee conflicts of interest Conflict of interest concerns regarding the doctoral thesis committee have been raised.

Schmitt defended his 1992 thesis before a committee headed by József Tihanyi. The other four members were Csaba Istvánfi, the late Mihály Nyerges and the two reviewers, István Kertész and Ferenc Takács.

In an article on 18 January Népszabadság cited the 37th section of the 1985 Doctoral Regulations of the Hungarian College of Physical Education, which stated that a person from whom an objective assessment of the candidate's work cannot be expected may not participate in review of the doctoral dissertation. In the opinion of Népszabadság, Kertész and Takács both had conflicting interests, since they were members of the Council of the Hungarian Olympic Academy (MOA, an organization founded by the Hungarian Olympic Committee), headed by Schmitt.

On 19 January the news portal Origo stated that Takács had been a member of the MOA since 1985, and that Kertész became a member in 1992. In 1992 both Istvánfi and Nyerges were members of the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB), and Tihanyi joined in 1994. Takács is also a member. Schmitt was the president of the MOA between 1985 and 1990, and general secretary of the MOB between 1990 and 2010. Tihanyi told Origo that "with hindsight it is unfortunate" that Schmitt had to defend his dissertation before committee members who were also members of the MOB, but he added that the university regulations at that time only regulated conflicts of interest that were limited to the university.

Reactions

Office of the President Four hours after the publication of the hvg.hu article that raised the issue of plagiarism the Office of the President issued the following statement:

Malina Georgieva