From dan.boboc@eam.ase.ro Thu Jun 11 04:19:53 2015 Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2015 12:19:53 +0300 From: DAN BOBOC To: zimmermann@stlouisfed.org Subject: Suspected plagiarism case *Mr. Christian Zimmermann, * We have received your e-mail informing about a suspected plagiarism case regarding our joint paper having as authors Victor Manole & Nicolae Istudor & Dan Boboc, 2007, entitled “The services in the rural economy based on innovation and knowledge in Romania”, published in The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 9(22), pages 136-146, Jun and we are remaking with surprise that the allegation is wrongly made and it cannot be supported by the facts, having in mind that the authors has mentioned all the literature used for documenting the current article into the Reference section. Regarding the offend that the list of key points on page 138 of Manole, Istudor and Boboc (2007) is taken from Niculescu (2006, page 50), which is not in the list of references we may state that, we have used in the article the original source, respectively Toffler Alvin - Razboi si anti-razboi, Editura ANTET, Bucuresti, 1995 and not the paper which the allegation refers. We are acknowledge the unwanted mistake of inserting the knowledge base economy features from Toffler Alvin work without an appropriate quotation and we are sorry for this situation and regret the technical mistake of not identifying and highlighting in a proper manner this text. We point out that the book Toffler Alvin - Razboi si anti-razboi, Editura ANTET, Bucuresti, 1995 is mentioned in the Reference section at position 8. Also, as concerning the allegation, we appreciate that is not supported, on the ground that we have mentioned the original work in the Reference section and we have not tried to present and taking someone else's work or ideas and passing off as one's own, as the general definition of plagiarism is. Having into consideration that we have referred in the paper to a general concept, largely recognized in the literature, we believe that our action could be placed under the practice of "fair use policy" regarding the usage of other authors work`s fragments. In order to eliminate any doubt we agree to introduce in the list of references the article of professor Niculescu and in this sense, we have the acceptance of the Editor. >From this perspective, we consider that our intention is misunderstood and the allegation is not supported and we thank you for giving use the opportunity to express our point of view regarding this situation. *Yours faithfully, * *Victor Manole, PhD* *Nicolae Istudor , PhD* *Dan Boboc, PhD*