New plagiarism claims against sport concussion guru Paul McCrory

The world-renowned concussion expert Dr Paul McCrory has been accused of 10 more cases of plagiarism, prompting experts to question how much original research the neurologist has produced and whether he deserved the hundreds of thousands of dollars in research grants he has received.

McCrory stood down as chair of the influential Concussion in Sport Group (CISG) in March after the British Journal of Sports Medicine retracted one of his 2005 editorials, citing an “unlawful and indefensible breach of copyright” of the work of Prof Steve Haake.

At the time McCrory was quoted apologising on Retraction Watch, saying his failure to attribute Haake’s work was an error and “not deliberate or intentional”.

That month Guardian Australia reported further plagiarism allegations against McCrory, an honorary associate with the prestigious Florey Institute for medical research in Melbourne. McCrory did not respond to requests for comment at the time.

Now, Nick Brown, a data analyst at Linnaeus University in Sweden, alleges he has found a further 10 examples of plagiarism by McCrory, including failing to attribute material taken from his own previously published work.

“Dr McCrory has been churning out very similar stories for 20 years, while, as far as I have been able to establish, performing very little original empirical or other research in that time,” Brown said.

“If you’re saying exactly the same thing about this topic as you did a decade ago, what kind of research are you doing?”

The new plagiarism allegations involve works published between 2001 and 2018. Brown says in most cases McCrory appears to have recycled up to 90% of his own previously published work for publication elsewhere without attribution, including in the British