I contacted Julie Maxton, the Registrar of Oxford University, about the plagiarism of Professor Leslie Iversen that I pointed out in a previous post. (Four passages in Speed, Ecstasy, Ritalin: The Science of Amphetamines, a book by Iversen, were copied without attribution from a website.) Maxton’s first reply was this:

This matter was drawn to the attention of the Oxford University Press in 2009, when the OUP and Professor Iversen agreed with the author of the online text that a reference would be included in any reprint or future editions of the publication.

I thought it strange that Oxford University governance was outsourced to Oxford University Press. Maxton then told me that she had made up her own mind:

Having looked at the texts and discussed the matter with Professor Iversen and with Oxford University Press, both of whom had previously been alerted to your complaint, I was satisfied that the error related to a small section of text of the book in question, that it was an honest error rather than a deliberate attempt to plagiarise the results of research, and that appropriate remedial action had been taken as far as the author of the text was concerned. Â I therefore concluded that no further investigation was required, and I regard the matter as closed.

Maxton did not respond to three emails asking why she concluded the plagiarism was “honest error”.

Oxford University’s plagiarism policy says “You have come to university to learn to know and speak your own mind, not merely to parrot the opinions of others. Still less to do so deceitfully, without attribution.” Apparently undergraduate plagiarism is a big problem at Oxford. According to an Oxford professor (not Iversen),

Hard though it may be to believe, students type word-for-word and increasingly copy and paste from the internet, and submit essays containing whole pages of this verbatim material.

Leslie Iversen, a retired Oxford professor of pharmacology, is Chair of the British government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society, a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences, and chairman of the board and director of Acadia Pharmaceuticals, San Diego.

In 2008, Oxford University Press published a book by Iversen called Speed, Ecstasy, Ritalin: The Science of Amphetamines. Four passages in it are very close to a website about MDMA (Ecstasy). The duplicated material was on the website in 2002.

Iversen (p. 151): MDMA was profiled by the San Francisco Chronicle as ‘The Yuppie Psychedelic’ (10 June 1984). In Newsweek, J Adler (‘High on “Ecstasy”‘, 15 April 1985) likened his MDMA experience to ‘a year of therapy in two hours’”. Harpers Bazaar described MDMA as ‘the hottest thing in the continuing search for happiness through chemistry’. Unsurprisingly, MDMA use soon spread beyond the couch and clinic to the wider world. MDMA’s now universal brand-name, “ecstasy”, was coined in 1981 by a member of a Los Angeles distribution network. The unnamed distributor apparently chose the name “ecstasy” because ‘it would sell better than calling it “Empathy”. “Empathy” would be more appropriate, but how many people know what it means?” (Eisner 1989). Condemned by purists as a cynical marketing ploy, the brand-name ‘ecstasy’ isn’t wholly misleading ( ecstasy: “an overpowering emotion or exaltation; a state of sudden intense feeling. Rapturous delight. The frenzy of poetic inspiration. Mental transport or rapture from the contemplation of divine things’ (Oxford English Dictionary)). Many first-time MDMA users do indeed become ecstatic. Some people report feeling truly well for the first time in their lives.

Website: MDMA was profiled by the San Francisco Chronicle as “The Yuppie Psychedelic” (10 June 1984). In Newsweek, J Adler [“High on ‘Ecstasy”, April 15 1985] likened his MDMA experience to “a year of therapy in two hours”. Harpers Bazaar described MDMA as “the hottest thing in the continuing search for happiness through chemistry”. Unsurprisingly, MDMA use soon spread beyond the couch and clinic to the wider world. MDMA’s now universal brand-name, “Ecstasy”, was coined in 1981 by a member of a Los Angeles distribution network. The unnamed distributor , quoted in Bruce Eisner’s Ecstasy: The MDMA Story (1989), apparently chose the name “Ecstasy” because “it would sell better than calling it ‘Empathy’. ‘Empathy’ would be more appropriate, but how many people know what it means?” Condemned by purists as a cynical marketing ploy, the brand-name “Ecstasy” isn’t wholly misleading [ecstasy: “an overpowering emotion or exaltation; a state of sudden intense feeling. Rapturous delight. The frenzy of poetic inspiration. Mental transport or rapture from the contemplation of divine things”]. Many first-time MDMA users do indeed become ecstatic. Some people report feeling truly well for the first time in their lives.

Iversen (p. 157-158): Pure MDMA salt is a white crystalline solid. It looks white and tastes bitter. The optimal adult dose of racemic MDMA is about 120-130 mg (around 2 mg/kg body weight). Pills sold in clubs often contain less. There are gender differences in response; proportionately to body weight, women are more sensitive than men to the effects of MDMA and so their optimal dosage may be lower. The preferentially metabolised (+)-enantiomer (‘mirror image’) of MDMA is more active, more stimulating, and more neurotoxic than the (-)-enantiomer. MDMA is usually taken orally as a tablet, capsule, or powder.

Website: Pure MDMA salt is a white crystalline solid. It looks white and tastes bitter. The compound is chemically stable. MDMA does not readily decompose in heat, air or light. The optimal adult dose of racemic MDMA is probably around 120-130 mg [around 2 mg/kg of body weight i.e. about 125mg] but optimal dose ranges from perhaps 75mg to as much as 250mg. Pills sold in clubs often contain less. There are gender differences in response; proportionately to body-weight, women are normally more sensitive than men to the sub-acute and longer-term effects of MDMA, so their optimal dosage may be lower. The preferentially metabolised (+)-enantiomer (“mirror image”) of MDMA is more active, more stimulating, more dopaminergic, more subjectively rewarding, and more neurotoxic than the (-)-enantiomer. MDMA is usually taken orally as a tablet, a capsule, or a powder.

Iversen (p. 158): … can promote an extraordinary clarity of introspective self-insight, together with a deep love of self and a no less emotionally intense empathetic love of others. MDMA also acts as a euphoriant. The euphoria is usually gentle and subtle; but is sometimes profound.

Website: … can promote an extraordinary clarity of introspective self-insight, together with a deep love of self and a no less emotionally intense empathetic love of others. MDMA also acts as a euphoriant. The euphoria is usually gentle and subtle; but sometimes profound.

Iversen (p. 159): MDMA is sensuous in its effects without being distinctively pro-sexual; it is more of a hug-drug than a love-drug. However, MDMA’s capacity to dissolve a lifetime’s social inhibitions, prudery, and sexual hang-ups means that lovemaking while under its spell is not uncommon. In men, orgasm is more intense than normal but is delayed: MDMA retains a residual sympathomimetic activity, triggering a detumescence of the male organ. To ease MDMA-induced performance difficulties, flagging Romeos increasingly combine Ecstasy with Viagra.

Website: MDMA is sensuous and sensual in its effects without being distinctively pro-sexual. Although once dubbed “lover’s speed”, MDMA is proverbially more of a hugdrug than a lovedrug: “I kissed someone I was in love with and almost felt as if I was going to pass out from the intensity”, recalls one American clubber. However, MDMA’s capacity to dissolve a lifetime’s social inhibitions, prudery and sexual hang-ups means that lovemaking while under its spell is not uncommon. Superfluous clothes tend to get shed. In men, orgasm is more intense than normal but delayed: MDMA retains a residual sympathomimetic activity, triggering a detumescence of the male organ. To ease MDMA-induced performance difficulties, flagging Romeos increasingly combine Ecstasy with Viagra.

Bold type indicates differences between the book and the website. University of Oxford policy on plagiarism. Plagiarism by Harvard professors.