Cambridge professor remains in post despite plagiarism

A Cambridge university professor who copied parts of an undergraduate’s essays and published them as his own work will remain in his job, despite an investigation upholding a complaint that he had committed plagiarism. 

Dr William O’Reilly, an associate professor in early modern history, submitted a paper that was published in the Journal of Austrian-American History in 2018. However, large sections of the work had been copied from essays by one of his undergraduate students.

The decision to leave O’Reilly in post casts doubt on the internal disciplinary processes of Cambridge, which rely on academics judging their peers.

The plagiarism was discovered in 2021 when the then former student came across the article and informed the university, providing evidence that entire pages of the paper had been lifted almost verbatim from two of his essays. 

Plagiarism is deemed to be “serious or gross misconduct” by the university, which states that it will “normally merit dismissal”, according to the university’s misconduct policy.

But after a two-year investigation, O’Reilly remains in his role after a university disciplinary tribunal ruled the plagiarism was “the product of negligent acts but was not deliberate”. The final decision was revealed to parties involved in the process in May.

O’Reilly has previously been involved in a matter that raised questions about the governance of the university and led to the resignation of a senior academic administrator.

Tortoise, an independent news outlet, revealed in 2020 that O’Reilly had been permitted to lead disciplinary processes into sexual assault allegations at Trinity Hall, the Cambridge college to which he had been affiliated, even after he himself was accused by a student of sexual assault.

O’Reilly denies the allegations, which led to no further action being taken against him.

One university employee who spoke on condition of anonymity acknowledged that internal processes on plagiarism had been followed, but said: “There is a fair bit of disgruntlement about it.”

Cambridge said it would be “inappropriate to comment in detail on allegations against a member of staff”. The article in question had been withdrawn from the journal, it added.

“A panel of independent members of the university has considered the issues and the matter is now concluded. We will not be commenting further.”

It did not comment on how the tribunal reached the decision that the plagiarism was accidental.

Documents seen by the Financial Times, including two essays submitted by the third-year student, show nearly half of the pages of O’Reilly’s published article — entitled “Fredrick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis, Orientalism, and the Austrian Militärgrenze” — had been plagiarised.

The documents also show that O’Reilly read and praised the original essays. Handwritten comments call one article “an excellent piece of work”, adding: “You have coined an original narrative . . . you create a new study.”

O’Reilly’s article was retracted from the Journal of Austrian-American History with a note that said material in the paper “was presented without credit”.

It added: “Since the author does not dispute that uncredited material is included, the publisher and editor wish to retract the article.”

Penn State University Press, which manages the journal, said: “The editor of [the journal] brought this situation to our attention as soon as he was made aware of it, and in response the press swiftly removed the article and posted a retraction statement”.

O’Reilly did not respond to requests for comment.

The original author of the essays confirmed that they had complained and said they were “baffled” at the conclusion, but otherwise declined to comment.