I am now drafting a complaint letter to the editor-in-chief of a technical journal, against an act of plagiarism committed by a famous researcher in my field. This researcher is apparently aware of my original work, written three years prior to his/her work. I've been having trouble with two of my own submissions to the same journal. I suspect this researcher may have intentionally sabotaged my review process by either offering unfair comments or delay the review process, while his/her own submission got revised, accepted and published in a whirlwind. Ironically, this researcher did actually cite my only published work, a conference paper, and at the same time pretended that he/she didn't know that I did it, and helped him/herself to do it all over again.
I am somehow confident about the objectiveness of the editor-in-chief, although it might be that the AE is also involved in this misconduct. But in case my complaint is unfortunately ignored, what can I do to defend myself?
Can I directly contact the superior of this researcher's institution to bring up the complaint again, hoping to have a different result?
Added later: for those who is unclear about what I mean and downvoted my question, please compare the difference between:
Reference [xxx] already did it. The result shown here can be found in [xxx].
and
Reference [xxx] mentioned it. But it is really me that first give the result.
Added much later: someone suggests that this might be an insufficient attribution. If you were in my place, what will you do then?
Suppose I am this famous researcher and I found out a nobody is not giving me sufficient attribution, will the situation be completely different?
Added much much later: Many thanks for all the comments and replies. I have drafted my letter of inquiry very carefully after taking the many suggestions given to me. Nevertheless I am prepared to eat the shxt...fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice...
Now I think it is not true that the "game" is rigged for me just because I am a Chinese...if I received my education in one of the top universities in Europe or in the states, I would have a much lower chance of knowing people like this researcher in the first place...now it sounds like it is still because I am a Chinese...damn this life played with hard mode...
Answer
Given your addendum, what you are talking about is not plagiarism. It might be a case of insufficient attribution, but without seeing the papers and knowing the field it is impossible to tell.
You are guaranteed to fail in your efforts, and to make yourself look bad in the process, if you accuse this famous researcher of the wrong transgression simply because you don't know the difference between plagiarism and insufficient attribution.
As an aside, the fact that you don't know this difference makes me question whether you are able to objectively judge whether or not the researcher in question has violated the norms of your field. I'd strongly advise seeking advice from a trusted senior mentor before doing anything.
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