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Terry Magnuson, the vice chancellor for research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who resigned last week after he was cited for plagiarism, issued a letter to his colleagues Friday taking responsibility for his mistake and explaining what happened.
The national Office of Research Integrity found that Magnuson, a professor of genetics at UNC’s school of medicine, “engaged in research misconduct by intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly plagiarizing text” in a federal grant application for cancer research.
“I made a mistake in the course of fleshing out some technical details of the proposed methodology,” Magnuson wrote to his colleagues, noting that he inserted placeholder text from outside sources and then simply forgot to replace or cite it.
He blamed the oversight on the pressures of serving as vice chancellor for research while continuing to work in his genetics lab.
“You cannot write a grant spending 30 minutes writing and then shifting to deal with the daily crises and responsibilities of a senior leadership position in the university, only to get back to the grant when you find another 30 minutes free,” he wrote.
He expressed gratitude to his colleagues and acknowledged that the incident was properly handled.
“I accepted responsibility for what occurred, and the discipline I received from NIH’s Office of Research Integrity is appropriate,” he wrote. “I hope this experience serves as teachable moment for us all.”
