Ideas, Integrity & Injustice: The Fight for Original Credit

We launched the Original Minds, Rightful Credit campaign in early 2025 to spotlight the growing problem of misattribution and intellectual property misuse, which is something I’ve seen directly affect many pioneering people across my networks. 

Moving beyond the first hand experiences of my peers and I, data makes clear that IP misuse is costing the UK billions. Trade-secret theft in sectors like science and innovation alone may account for up to £75 billion a year, that’s up to 3% of GDP (Goldsmiths, 2021). OECD data shows UK businesses lost £7.9 billion in sales to IP infringement in 2021 (OECD, 2021), which adds to our in-house evidence of why OMRC’s mission for rightful credit and protection is so imperative. And, you’ll note, those stats relate to the period prior to mainstream use of AI, which comes with a whole host of problems of its own.

The indications are that we’re not just dealing with issues that result from individual actions nor even fault on the part of a few institutions. What we have here appears to be a situation with similarities to other serious IP issues, including AI companies that are training their software on people’s work without their permission, let alone renumeration. That’s why this campaign exists: to push back, and as part of a wider movement that’s seeking to change a culture that exploits people’s ideas without regard for the time, resources, sacrifices - and more - that went into their creation. 

OMRC gives voice to those who’ve been overlooked, under-credited, or outright plagiarised in science, technology, STEM, design, and innovation. It’s being facilitated with the support of Ardesey, a specialist agency working in science, technology and innovation policy and communications.

Put simply, the problem of dealing with research plagiarism, IP theft, and mis-appropriation has become an increasingly familiar territory for many of us that work at the coalface of discovery and innovation. Though these issues are nothing new, the speed and the scale at which they are now populating research and its outputs is, and that’s doing harm on multiple fronts.

The harms done aren’t just to individuals, but to entire disciplines, industries, and even economies. 

New and emerging technologies have made it much easier to not only copy ideas, and rapidly, but to promote at scale as well. When intellectual property was plagiarised, stolen, and otherwise mis-used in the last century, it typically took months if not years, to reach global audiences. Today, an IP can be taken instantaneously, and shared with such speed that audiences can multiply millions in a matter of days. That does all kinds of harm, from stripping credit, funds, and opportunities more generally away from those with the talents and skills to craft genuinely novel solutions to enabling those that lack integrity and ethics in their research and wider conduct to obscuring the conditions in which genuinely original ideas emerge. Though our campaign is principally concerned with research integrity and ethics, it touches on wider issues including such things as the absence of diligence in such things as editorial and publishing, in granting of funding and investment, and more. Credit matters, it matters greatly, because its absence can undermine the extent to which someone can further their research works, and vice versa. As a society – do we want to see those that originate discoveries, inventions and innovators do well, or do we want to see people that take their ideas and pass them off as their own do well? And, if the former, what are we going to do to ensure that happens, and not the latter? 

What’s become clear is that while the cases are diverse, certain themes come up time and again. People speak of betrayal, distrust, and long-term damage to their confidence and mental health. These aren’t isolated incidents and they can leave deep emotional and professional scars.

One contributor told us:

“It is a trauma. I am less collaborative, less open, and a more paranoid colleague. And I know that will affect my own innovation and the people I train up.”

Another shared:

“The experience has been a huge knock to my confidence. It stopped me asking for help from others in the industry and led me to limit how much I share my ideas.”

And one of the most powerful stories we heard:

“I now don’t trust anyone in the creative and innovation field. I suffered depression for a long time and it impacted my work and my family life badly.”

“A classmate copied my Master’s research to secure a prestigious funded residency. The only difference between our projects was incremental. My work had already been published, and I had shared it widely. I couldn’t understand how both my university and the awarding foundation could allow plagiarised work to win the award.”

These are real people. Talented, hopeful professionals whose ideas have been taken, sometimes blatantly, and with no accountability. And when those ideas are taken, the impact goes far beyond the individual. Innovation suffers. Trust in collaborative research breaks down. The creative and scientific ecosystem becomes more risk-averse, less open, and ultimately less productive. Left unaddressed, this erodes not only the integrity of academic and professional communities but also the potential for economic growth and societal progress. 

First, if you’ve been affected, please reach out. Your story will be anonymised and treated with the utmost care. We understand how hard it can be to speak up – we know that the issues we’re dealing with are the kind that cause sleepless nights. But by stepping forward, you can help us show the scale, nature, and impact of the problem. You may have felt your voice could not be heard and your story not told. Our campaign has the agency, and we are telling your stories. You may have felt alone and at a loss to know what to do. You aren’t alone any more. Our campaign is here to be the movement for people like you.

Second, if you haven’t experienced this directly but you work in research, design, STEM or innovation, and you know someone who has been impacted by this do reach out to us and please share  this campaign within your networks. Help us help others. By doing so you are upholding the values upon which integrity rests.

My ideas have been plagiarized, stolen, and otherwise mis-used so many times that a peer suggested I keep a tally chart or Bingo card. While, thankfully, I’ve not yet experienced every kind of IP mis-use, I’ve experienced many. I am writing a detailed case study on what exactly happened with me and how my research was plagiarised and I will be publishing it soon.

In the early years it was typically fairly straight forward to address an issue – problems could be nipped in the bud swiftly – a legal letter here, a call to a governing body there. However, in the past few years, things have typically become more complicated partly because of the speed at which content is manufactured and spread online, in tandem with an absence of appropriate levels of due diligence on the part of some publications, awards programs, and – even – some universities.  

Impacts are not just financial. For example, my work is concerned with addressing serious issues of environment and society – and in particular, how we mitigate against the worsening threat of wildfires to people, property, and ecosystems. It’s a responsibility that my collaborators and I take very seriously, because if we didn’t, we would literally be playing with fire. There’s a reason why some ideas are not widely disseminated with immediacy to the global public, and are instead carefully researched, developed, and tested over time. In that period, protecting IP is imperative, and this is why researchers like me take whatever steps we can to do so. In my experience, not merely is the legal framework falling short, but, even that which is enshrined appears to be patchy in its implementation. 

In terms of my own experience, my confidence in the UK as a place for R&D is now very low. That wasn’t always the case, far from it, and one of the reasons peers and I got together with peers to launch OMRC – we don’t want to see the UK’s position as a place where pioneering discoveries and ideas thrive diminish, and we certainly don’t want members of our communities suffering in silence.

Firstly, we want to quantify the scale of the issue—to gather data that showcases the extent and nature of the problem. We want to raise awareness, and drive lasting cultural and policy change that supports integrity, accountability, and above all – fairness in research in science, wider STEM, design, and innovation.