Sorry, forgot to link the image: it's a side-by-side comparison of the abstract of a review he published some time ago and the abstract of a recent paper in a Korean journal that copies it word-for-word (with one additional reference and one word change). I've recommended he contact the journal editors but it must be pretty disheartening (or, I suppose, the sincerest form of flattery).
Sadly, I am not really surprised. Referencing the original authors is particularly stupid: If they monitor citations to their own paper, they are bound to notice.
Yup. Something similar (but far less extreme) happened to me some years ago, but I was a research fellow by then - I imagine having it happen while you're a student is even more frustrating.
@ff524 I came in here a while back asking about thesis projects and an adviser question, just wanted to let you guys know that I had a successful defense, got an A+ for the thesis course, and I'm graduating in a couple of days with my MSE. The thesis process was not as hard as I was expecting, but I was my adviser's first thesis student which could explain some of the confusion.
So thanks for your help ff524, I was pretty worried at one point during the coursework, it seemed a little like nobody was "steering the ship" but it turned out okay.
Also (since at the time I was wondering how long this process usually takes) I was working full time and going to school, it took around 3 semesters to finish my thesis, though one of them was a directed study on a related topic. I took one other 3 credit course this semester. I feel like it may have been possible to do it in two semesters but the methods covered in the thesis weren't planned out well enough ahead of time.
