VU Amsterdam economics team cleared in plagiarism investigation

Former economics professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Peter Nijkamp and his team did not commit plagiarism and did not tamper with research results, the Academic Integrity Committee of VU Amsterdam and the VU Medical Center concluded in their investigation into the matter, the Volkskrant reports. Two years ago Nijkamp and one of his PdD students were anonymously accused of plagiarism and fabricating research. This caused quite the commotion, given that Nijkamp is known as a reputable scientists and published about 50 research articles a year. His critics felt that such a high number of articles is only possible through cutting and pasting, and not through thorough research. The VU launched an investigation immediately after the anonymous accusation. And the investigation concluded that the accusations and criticism are unfounded in every respect. Professor Nijkamp himself sees no reason to be happy about this. He is still furious about how everything happened and believes that the university's Executive Board and Ombudsman made serious mistakes. "If charlatans can unconcernedly send out false accusations to bring down dedicated scientists, then in future the way is clear for even more subversive actions", he said in the Volkskrant. "Especially anonymous complaints great constraints are required, but me and my younger colleagues were immediately put away as suspects."