Why are many candidates for professor and associate professor positions suspected of 'lack of integrity' still approved?

21 CANDIDATES "FAIL" IN THE FINAL ROUND

On November 6, the Office of the State Council of Professors (SC) announced the list of candidates for professor and associate professor (GS, PGS) approved by the SC for the 2018-2023 term at the 12th meeting (from November 4-5).

The 12th meeting of the State Council of Professors for the 2018-2023 term approved the list of 630 candidates for Professor and Associate Professor.

Speaking to Thanh Nien Newspaper, a representative of the Office of the State Professor Council said that the list of candidates for professors and associate professors approved by the State Professor Council includes 630 people, including the two councils of security science and defense science. Of these, there are 58 professor candidates and 572 associate professor candidates. The number of candidates approved by the sectoral councils is 651, including 60 professor candidates and 591 associate professor candidates. Thus, there are 2 professor candidates and 19 associate professor candidates who have been approved by the sectoral councils but not approved by the State Professor Council. The percentage of candidates who achieved the results at the state level is 97% compared to the number of candidates submitted by the sectoral councils.

According to Thanh Nien statistics, the field with the most professor and associate professor candidates passing the final round is economics, with 92 candidates (6 professors, 86 associate professors); next is the interdisciplinary field of chemistry - food technology, 54 candidates (6 professors, 48 ​​associate professors); the interdisciplinary field of mechanics - dynamics, 43 candidates (6 professors, 37 associate professors); medicine, 63 candidates (6 professors, 57 associate professors).

" THANKS TO" ANONYMOUS PETITIONS, MANY CASES WITHDRAWAL

Speaking to Thanh Nien , Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Chief of Office of the National Council of Professors, said that this year, many candidates, although approved by the industry councils, withdrew at the State Council level. Even during the 12th meeting of the National Council of Professors on November 4-5, there were still withdrawal requests. Most of the withdrawals were not completely voluntary, but were related to reflections on scientific integrity (LCKH) through anonymous letters or on social networks, especially on the LCKH Facebook page.

Mr. Tuan said that during the 2023 Professor and Associate Professor examination season, up to now, the Office of the National Council of Professors has only received 2 legitimate applications. Of these 2 applications, one accused a candidate in the field of biology of violating the scientific code, and the other accused a candidate in the field of philosophy - society - politics of being considered for the wrong major. After verification, the Office of the National Council of Professors found that these accusations were unfounded. Therefore, both candidates were included in the final round of consideration and were approved by the National Council of Professors.

However, the Office of the Council of Professors receives quite a lot of anonymous letters. In addition, the office also monitors information about candidates on the LCKH website. Then, the office compiles the information and sends it to the industry councils, requesting that the industry councils consider it. "With anonymous petitions or anonymous reflections on LCKH, if the content of the accusation or reflection is general such as poor ethics, or plagiarism... without indicating a specific product or not stating the specific content of the accusation, the Office of the National Council of Professors will report to the Minister for permission not to forward it to the sectoral councils. For anonymous petitions or reflections with specific content, the Office of the National Council of Professors will forward them to the sectoral councils for consideration, and then have a written explanation. The Office of the National Council of Professors will synthesize and report to the National Council of Professors. Most of the content is considered by the National Council of Professors through the explanations of the sectoral councils, and questions will be raised for clarification. Some cases of candidates withdrawing themselves are the result of this processing procedure. The rest are evaluated and voted on by the National Council of Professors," said Mr. Tuan.

GSNN Council term 2018 - 2023

MANY APPLICATIONS SUSPECT OF "LACK OF INTEGRITY" ARE STILL PASSED

This year's Professor and Associate Professor examination season takes place in a context where Vietnamese science still has many unclear points, making it difficult to distinguish between honest and dishonest scientists. Many candidates have been accused on social media of showing signs of "lack of integrity", however, the names of these candidates are included in the list of candidates approved by the State Professor Council.

Typically, a candidate for a medical professorship was accused of dishonestly declaring the number of scientific works published internationally (international articles). This candidate had too many articles, while his application only declared a very small part. In addition, the candidate was also accused of publishing articles in "predatory" journals, a behavior that serious scientists are fighting against...

Mathematics, a famous field that is closest to international scientific research standards, has also been reported to have signs of covering up for some candidates suspected of violating LCKH. According to the reflection on the LCKH page, many mathematicians (including 2 candidates for professorship) have published many international articles in which the address section includes 2 places, one is the candidate's workplace, the other is Thang Long University, in the name of cooperation with Thang Long University, but the nature of this cooperation has not been clarified.

However, responding to Thanh Nien , representatives of relevant industry councils said they had no basis to determine that those candidates violated the LCHK, while the candidates all met the professional requirements.

EXPLANATION OF THE GSNN COUNCIL

Regarding the cases of candidates of the two medical and mathematical councils that we mentioned above, Mr. Tuan said that in the case of the medical candidate, the medical council had done a very thorough job, and even asked the candidate to explain. The State Council also asked the industry council to explain this case separately. According to the candidate's explanation, the reason why the candidate had a large number of international articles was because he had collaborated in many research projects and participated in many research groups of many units. The industry council accepted the candidate's explanation and committed to being responsible for the explanation of the industry council. According to practice, the State Council voted to approve all cases that required explanation. According to regulations, at the state council level, the candidate only needs to get 50% of the votes in favor to be approved. "We also counted on Google Scholar and found that the number of articles published by the candidate was lower than the number listed on the LCKH page. Since 2021, the candidate has also reduced the number of annual publications (the peak in the number of publications by the candidate was in 2019)," said Mr. Tuan.

Regarding the case of recording 2 addresses of the Mathematics Department, Mr. Tuan said that according to the explanation of the Mathematics Department Council, during the time of performing the research task, the candidates had a cooperative relationship with Thang Long University, so they had the right to record this unit as the second address. Regarding the evidence for that cooperation (such as whether or not there was consent from the Vietnam Institute of Mathematics, the agency where the candidates worked), Mr. Tuan replied: "Professor Le Tuan Hoa is the Chairman of the Mathematics Department Council, formerly the Director of the Vietnam Institute of Mathematics, the candidates are staff of the Institute of Mathematics, whether the Institute of Mathematics agrees to let the candidates cooperate with Thang Long University or not, Professor Le Tuan Hoa knows clearly".

From the incident of 'selling' scientific research articles, the autonomous mechanism is also a cause.

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