A couple of years ago, I received an e-mail from someone in Germany 
who reported to me that a paper of Italian student plagiarized my 
book, The New Classical Macroeconomics, and, even more heavily, a 
book by another historian of macroeconomics.  A humorous aspect of 
this was that I had in fact refereed the paper for a journal.  My 
report noted the utter lack of originality and was negative, but I 
did not catch the fact that the words were exactly mine.  In 
mitigation, my book was written nearly 20 years before.  I protested 
directly to author, to the editor of the journal to which the paper 
was submitted, to the Italian society that had given the author a 
prize based on the paper and to the other author who was 
plagiarized.  I was shocked by the initial reaction of all 
parties:  the plagiarizing author never replied; the editor was 
inclined to excuse the author on the grounds of youth, as was the 
head of the society; the other plagiarized author was apparently not 
very incensed by the theft.  Nevertheless, I insisted that the 
behavior was unacceptable and, ultimately, the paper was rejected 
from the journal and the prize withdrawn.

The case does, I think, illustrate the normal problem with plagiarism.
At least in the U.S., it is regarded as -- in principle -- a serious 
matter, which could, for instance, result in dismissal from an 
academic job.  But in practice, editors or others in authority, are 
wont to minimize the problem and to take little action unless 
forced.  As a community, we are insufficiently outraged.  My own view 
is that the editor in Guido Erreygers report is 
irresponsible.  Publishing a plagiarized paper is a black mark 
against the journal.  The editor has a moral obligation to 
investigate and to publish a notice in the journal, and to contact 
the plagiarizing author to let him know that the behavior is 
unacceptable.  He should probably go further than that and contact 
the author's department chair or dean.  And if the editor neglects to 
do so, the plagiarized author would be justified and, indeed, would 
be doing good for the community to make such contact himself.

Kevin Hoover