A book by a Vietnamese author published by Routledge has just been released but immediately after that, the co-author accused him of 'not writing a single word'. Meanwhile, the main author called for help, saying he was being 'slandered and blackmailed'.
Author Nguyen Tra Giang at the book launch of A Unified System Fitness Design (USFD - Comprehensive and inclusive fitness model) in Vietnam - Photo: NVCC
On September 24, Dr. Nguyen Tra Giang - Director of the Institute of Sports Science and Management, Ho Chi Minh City University of Management and Technology (UMT) - launched the book A Unified System Fitness Design (USFD - Comprehensive and inclusive physical fitness model) .
However, shortly after, Mr. Oliver Napila Gomez (Philippines) - co-author of the above book - sent an email to UMT School, and posted a series of accusations on social networks, saying: "I am the sole author of the book USFD".
Co-author accuses main author of "not contributing a single word"
The book USFD, written by Nguyen Tra Giang and Oliver Napila Gomez, is published by Routledge (part of Taylor & Francis Group, headquartered in the UK).
However, after the launch of the USFD book in Vietnam, Mr. Oliver Napila Gomez posted on Facebook accusing Ms. Nguyen Tra Giang of violating intellectual property rights when she was the first author of the book: "I don't know what happened, but I was manipulated to give up the first authorship and give it to her (Tra Giang - PV), despite the fact that she did not contribute anything to the book".
Previously, on Oliver's personal page, he posted a lot of content denouncing Nguyen Tra Giang, which was said to have been sent to UMT School, in which he affirmed: "Oliver is the creator and owner of the USFD brand. Oliver is the sole author of the book's manuscript.
The above book was published mainly due to Oliver's efforts in application, communication and manuscript compilation. You (Tra Giang) have not made any academic contribution to the concepts and knowledge presented in the book, not even a single word".
"Slander on social networks for blackmail"
In response to this incident, author Nguyen Tra Giang sent a petition to the authorities, affirming: "I am the main author of the book USFD, published by Routledge. Mr. Oliver Napila Gomez is the co-author, who is targeting me to blackmail me by slandering me on social networks because of personal hatred due to losing his job at UMT."
According to Dr. Nguyen Tra Giang, she and Mr. Oliver have a friendship and teacher-student relationship in academics. After knowing each other since 2017, she and Oliver have exchanged academic and professional topics on physical qualities, training programs as well as tests to assess physical qualities of students.
"At that time, Oliver had just graduated from university in the Philippines, and I was a PhD student working at a university in Thailand. During these academic exchanges, I acted as a mentor for Oliver (mentee) as a student," said Ms. Giang.
According to Ms. Giang, at this time she realized that in Vietnam and Thailand, physical qualities are not considered important, even for students.
At the same time, the testing was very outdated and sketchy. That was the decision for her to come up with a plan to write a study, a book or something that could help this develop more and everyone would understand and care about it.
"I started to sketch out the idea (content related to the current USFD book - PV) with Associate Professor, Dr. Rumpai Soonjan, a colleague at Bangkokthonburi University. The two of us wrote and started the project together in December 2020 called "Design and development of a mobile application and a guide to appropriate and standardized physical fitness testing for students aged 6-18 in Thailand", Ms. Giang shared.
Associate Professor, Dr. Rumpai Soonjan confirmed the above information to Tuoi Tre and added: "Dr. Nguyen Tra Giang is the key person and has been fully responsible for the content of the topic since December 2020. In this topic, Dr. Giang presented in detail about health related to physical fitness as well as skills related to physical fitness.
We submitted this project for funding from the Thailand Council for International Research, but it was not implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the fund did not provide funding."
In February 2021, Ms. Giang collaborated with Ms. Nguyen Thi My Hau, former principal of Ho Chi Minh City High School for Gifted Sports, to write a similar project in Vietnam, but the project was not implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The book is in dispute between two authors - Photo: TRAN HUYNH
"Oliver is a typist"
According to Ms. Giang, in 2022, she met Oliver again when he was a physical education teacher at an international primary school in Thailand. From then on, the two met more often to discuss academic issues, then came up with the idea of writing a book on the topic of physical qualities based on the content and documents she had previously drafted in 2020 and 2021.
"I then sent all the content from previous projects as well as new content to Oliver's machine via Airdrop (a file sharing service on Apple devices), so he had enough data to type and edit. From there, the content started to gradually come together.
I provided professional advice, Oliver was the one who typed and completed the data and opinions collected during the joint working sessions. We met and exchanged content regularly until it was completed in August 2022," Ms. Giang said.
According to Ms. Giang, the two then discussed and decided to send the manuscript to Springer Publishing House.
"At that time, I gave full responsibility to Oliver so that he could work directly with the publisher. I was the one who selected external reviewers for review, including many famous scientists in sports science around the world, but the manuscript was not published because it did not meet the requirements.
After many days of research, I discussed with Oliver to revise the manuscript and transfer it to Routledge Publishing House. I was primarily responsible for revising and rewriting the manuscript. It took us another year to do this until September 2023," said Ms. Giang.
By February 2024, a complete book publishing contract between the three parties (the two authors and Routledge) was signed. From this point on, as Routledge focused on publishing the book worldwide, the two authors prepared the book launch according to Routledge's instructions and requirements to support their business.
"Everything was going according to plan until September 29, Oliver asked me for money to fix his family's house in the Philippines, but I said we were preparing for a book launch so I didn't have money to give him.
Then, on October 16, Oliver sent me an email blackmailing me for $40,000 and began threatening to defame me in the academic world," Ms. Giang reflected.
Due to conflicts of interest
Speaking to Tuoi Tre , Mr. Oliver said: "It has never happened that Ms. Giang directed the content of the book in meetings. The truth is that when I had the chance, I shared my ideas with her. She never gave me any instructions. I taught her, I guided her, not the other way around. What did she write to deserve the position of first author? Nothing."
Regarding his absence from the book launch, Mr. Oliver said: "Due to a conflict of interest, I refused to participate. I asked Giang not to use my images at the book launch, but she still used them."
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tac-gia-sach-keu-cuu-noi-dong-tac-gia-vu-khong-tong-tien-20241203074325692.htm
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