Supervisor’s Reuse of Bachelor Theses

A senior researcher publishes a scientific article. It turns out that a substantial portion of the article is a written reworking of parts of two different bachelor’s theses. The two theses are not cited. The senior researcher was the supervisor when the two bachelor’s students wrote their theses.

Questions:

• Can this be considered plagiarism when the senior researcher provided supervision and may also have contributed concrete input to the theses?
• Does it change the situation if the two bachelor’s students had given the supervisor permission to reuse text from their theses without citing them?
• Bachelor’s theses are usually regarded as part of an educational activity rather than as research. Is it necessary to cite such theses in a scientific article? Would it have been different if the supervisor had reused parts of a master’s thesis or a PhD dissertation?
• If, instead of bachelor’s theses, the original work had been a jointly authored article where the two students were listed as co-authors and the supervisor as the main author, would the supervisor/senior researcher then need to cite the joint work if the new article reproduces parts of the earlier one? What arguments speak in favor of citation, and what arguments speak against it?

Read more:

• Shades of grey in academic citation practice
• Guidance and collegiality