Peter Nijkamp

Peter Nijkamp

Peter Nijkamp (born 26 February 1946) is a Dutch economist, Professor of Regional Economics and Economic Geography at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, a fellow of the Tinbergen Institute and President of the Governing Board of the Netherlands Research Council (NWO). He is ranked among the top 100 economists in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc, and is by far the most prolific economist.[1] In January 2014 some Dutch media conducted investigations of Nijkamp's publications and leveled accusations of self-plagiarism, and asserted that the VU knew of the alleged misconduct.[2]

Biography

Born in Dalfsen, Overijssel, Nijkamp received his MSc in Econometrics and Regional Economics in 1970, and his PhD in Regional Economics in 1972, both from the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

He has honorary doctorates from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the National Technical University of Athens. He is a winner of the Spinozapremie (1996), the European Prize in Regional Science, and Founder's Medal of the Regional Science Association International.

Allegations of self-plagiarism

In 2013, a PhD thesis of one of his students was withdrawn one day before the scheduled defence. It consisted almost entirely of papers jointly written with Nijkamp. An internal investigation at the VU determined that some of these papers were recycled versions of yet earlier papers, with other co-authors, who had not been cited properly: this might be considered a form of plagiarism. The VU's rector, Frank van der Duyn Schouten, stated that Nijkamp had acted improperly but had not committed plagiarism.[3] However, on 7 January 2014 the VU announced that it would investigate Nijkamp's entire publishing record, and the one of his previous students, and that it would inquire with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences on the boundary between self-plagiarism and "self-citation".[4]

Some Dutch media did their own investigations of Nijkamp's work. An article in NRC Handelsblad listed four examples of what they called self-plagiarism.[5] After analyzing 115 articles Nijkamp published since 2000, de Volkskrant concluded that 60% of his work contained recycled passages.[6] However in a response published in the Free University's newspaper "Ad Valvas" Nijkamp pointed out that the Volkskrant's sample contained many pre-publications and other "grey literature" which of course also appeared, after review, in regular journals. On the other hand, the NRC explained that their 4 examples came out of on an investigation of 8 journal papers from the joint work of Nijkamp and his student. 7 of the 8 included text apparently copied verbatim from earlier papers with various other co-authors, without indication that the text was quoted, let alone attribution to the earlier writers.

Publications

His books include

His journal papers include

References

  1. ↑ IDEAS/RePEc Number of Distinct Works
  2. ↑ Sahadat, Ianthe (7 January 2014). "VU verzweeg maandenlang plagiaatzaak bij economie". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  3. ↑ Sahadat, Ianthe (7 January 2014). "Rector VU: wat Nijkamp deed, was geen diefstal". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  4. ↑ Deira, Shari (7 January 2014). "VU laat hele oeuvre van econoom Nijkamp onderzoeken". Elsevier (in Dutch). Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  5. ↑ Remie, Mirjam (7 January 2014). "Vier voorbeelden van het (zelf)plagiaat van topeconoom Nijkamp - nrc.nl". NRC Handelsblad. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  6. ↑ "Onderzoek: 60 procent publicaties VU-econoom bevat 'zelfplagiaat'". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). 8 January 2014. Retrieved 12 January 2014.

External links