Professor Le Tuan Hoa, Chairman of the Mathematics Professorship Council, said that violations of scientific integrity are very diverse, must be carefully evaluated and should not be used to suppress the path of those who have done wrong.
Mr. Hoa answered VnExpress about this issue after some mathematicians were accused of violating integrity:
- Recently, a mathematician was criticized for selling papers to a university other than the one where he worked. What is your opinion on this?
- That person immediately admitted that he was wrong. He also submitted an application to withdraw from the Mathematics Council and the Nafosted Foundation. So why bother making excuses?
Everyone makes mistakes. What matters is how they react after the incident and how people treat them. We should not block their path. In sports, athletes who use doping will be severely punished, but no matter how severe, there will be a time limit. After that, they will return to normal competition. If they win a medal, they will still be recognized.
In the field of Mathematics, since 15 years ago, the Councils of Professors have also imposed penalties on those who publish articles in journals that do not guarantee quality (fake journals). If discovered, whether declared in the application or not, through a vote of confidence, the council will fail for at least two years for associate professor candidates and three years for professor candidates.
Recently, there has been a phenomenon of posting articles without mentioning the address of the agency you work for, called selling articles. Since 2020, we have also introduced similar penalties.
This year, the Mathematics Department has a person who achieved an associate professorship with a very high score. Two years ago, when he was rejected for selling papers, he cried and asked the council how they would handle the decision to stay in the department or not. The university where he worked also terminated his contract. However, he learned from his experience and published many very good articles. He thanked the council for helping him become aware of his behavior.
Or there are universities that buy papers. Their positive point is that they are aware that research is important, but their methods are wrong. The school has changed and started to do things the right way. At least two famous math professors have joined the school. If you keep criticizing them, how can they change?
- Every year when considering the recognition of professors and associate professors, the issue of scientific integrity is often mentioned. In your opinion, how is scientific integrity understood?
- Scientific integrity means that scientists must be honest, upright, and responsible in academic activities, including scientific research and teaching.
Integrity is the first and mandatory requirement for scientists. It is expressed in many ways, from seemingly small things.
For example, I was at the Institute of Mathematics, and I worked at a university for only about 1-2 weeks. While talking to teachers at the school, I thought of a way to solve a problem and then a few years later, I wrote an article about that problem. Even though I was at the school for very little time and did not receive any financial benefits, I still mentioned the school in the acknowledgements because I felt that it showed integrity.
Previously, an associate professor was rejected for the Ta Quang Buu Award. Although he had a good work published in a very good journal, because at the end of the article he thanked a foreign research fund, it was concluded that the work was done abroad. Actually, if he had not written that thank you, it would have been fine, but he still wrote it. This is a very high expression of integrity, showing respect for the unit that supported him, not ignoring it because of the award.
- What are the common violations related to scientific integrity today?
- Violations related to scientific integrity are very diverse, difficult to list all. The most frequently mentioned behavior is publishing articles in fake journals. About 15 years ago, online journals were born, followed by many fake journals and articles. To verify the quality of these journals, a foreign mathematician used a fake name and address, and submitted an "article" for publication. This article had the first sentence with grammatical errors, the second sentence was about Mathematics, the third sentence was about Chemistry, in short, it was a mess, but it was still published.
Later, the fake journals became more sophisticated, not allowing such crude errors as the above case. Some fake journals cleverly lure authors by not charging for the first 1-2 articles. Then, they analyze the data to find out who is interested in publishing and start collecting money. But the common point is that the articles are not scientific, or the quality is not guaranteed. Therefore, publishing in these journals, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is considered a violation of integrity.
Professor Le Tuan Hoa. Photo: Thanh Hang
Another common practice is to leave the address on the paper that does not match the place where the scientist works, commonly known as article selling, which has been around for the past 5-7 years. I don’t understand how it has become so easy for some people to write and publish articles, and some schools are willing to pay for articles.
There are people who publish in many journals but do not declare it honestly. For whatever reason, it is dishonest to publish it to the world and then hide it.
In addition, there are many other behaviors that are rarely mentioned by the public. For example, the committee members do not accurately evaluate the candidates, or give hasty recognition. Or when supervising graduate students, because they want to achieve quantitative results, the supervisor gives them the assignment without having to spend time researching and studying.
When integrity is violated, the most obvious consequence is the creation of poor quality articles. In fact, many articles by the same author are very similar. Those in the field will immediately see that these articles are just like exercises, substituting in data and not creating new knowledge.
The bigger consequence is that dishonest teachers will set a bad example for the younger generation, causing them to make similar mistakes. This also creates bad public opinion for those who do not violate, and even an entire field of science if the reflection is not clear, taking individual cases to consider as a trend.
- In your opinion, how can we detect and prevent these behaviors?
- Scientists are quick to spot unscrupulous behavior in their field. However, there are some very delicate, difficult cases that reviewers must investigate with extreme caution.
For example, a recent Mathematics candidate was also criticized for violating integrity when he published an international paper with the names of two addresses, the Institute of Mathematics and Thang Long University. However, this was considered reasonable by the Institute's council and the Mathematics Council because there was clear and public cooperation. The candidate presented a work contract and the university paid him a monthly research salary. At the time of cooperation, there was no document prohibiting this. Therefore, the candidate did not violate anything.
As for prevention, in the Mathematics industry, we have a "punishment" of 2-3 years without considering awards or recognizing titles for violators. When considering professors and associate professors, a set of more than 20 criteria, the most important of which is taking a vote of confidence, also contributes to preventing integrity violations.
But above all, whether it can be prevented or not depends on the awareness of scientists. On the contrary, the assessment of real scientists can tell us quite accurately whether the behavior is honest or not.
Of course, no matter how carefully you research, there are still cases where things go wrong because of subjective factors. The most vivid example is that up to 12 publishers refused to publish the Harry Potter manuscript by author JK Rowling. As a result, they lost a lucrative contract, but they still exist and no one in the world said anything about the injustice. The problem is that those publishers did not evaluate the value of the book. The first place to accept the book was Bloomsbury, a small publisher in England - and from there the whole world knew about Harry Potter.
I give this example just to say, when something goes wrong, we should calmly consider it, even criticize it, but absolutely should not make a big deal out of it.
Duong Tam - Thanh Hang
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