On December 19, at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) organized a scientific workshop on integrity in research.
Speaking at the workshop, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Van Phuc stated: In the past 10 years, one of the outstanding results of science, technology and innovation activities is the strong increase in the number of scientific publications in prestigious international journals, demonstrating the contribution of Vietnamese scientists in developing human knowledge, meeting the requirements of international integration in scientific research, contributing to enhancing the position and potential of science and technology of the country.
Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Tran Hong Thai and Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Van Phuc chaired the discussion (photo TL).
Specifically, according to Elsevier's database, the total number of Vietnamese scientific publications in the Scopus catalog in 2013 was about 3,800 articles and in 2022 it was nearly 18,500 articles, an increase of about 5 times, bringing Vietnam's ranking to 5th in the ASEAN region, 12th in Asia and 45th in the world in terms of the number of international publications on Scopus.
This number of international publications contributed to Vietnam's 2022 global innovation index ranking 48th out of 132 ranked countries and territories; 4th in Southeast Asia and 2nd in low-income countries (after India).
“The strong growth of international publications in recent years, in addition to the positive contributions as mentioned above, is also raising a number of issues that need attention and resolution for managers, science and technology organizations as well as the community and individual scientists, including debates about integrity in scientific research,” Deputy Minister Nguyen Van Phuc raised the issue.
At the workshop, many opinions and discussions of scientists were recorded regarding the current situation and experiences at higher education institutions, as well as proposals and recommendations to implement integrity in research.
Conference scene (photo TL).
Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc, Chairman of the Council of the University of Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, stated: Regulations on integrity in scientific research and in academia are necessary to discuss in order to come up with a framework and gradually perfect it.
The purpose of integrity is to aim for health, first of all people need to be aware of integrity in their ethics and behavior. Besides, it is also necessary to avoid taking advantage of integrity to hurt scientists.
"I hope that through this workshop, there will be a directive for all schools to be proactive, have management tools to control, and create a healthy mechanism in science," Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc expressed.
Also mentioning a common set of rules on research integrity, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hung, lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, hopes that there will be a common set of rules, from which schools can build their own sets of rules.
Along with that is a post-audit mechanism and a sanction mechanism. According to Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tai Dong, Director of the Institute of Philosophy, Vietnam is not a "desert" of scientific integrity, we have many regulations reflected in the law, reflected in the decree, reflected in the regulations of the Ministry of Science and Technology, of the Ministry of Education and Training, of many schools, many journals; the only thing is that there is not yet a comprehensive regulation and now there needs to be a common legal framework.
“This is mandatory in building a set of criteria or a common regulation for the country,” Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tai Dong commented.
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Tai Dong also shared that what scientists pursue is knowledge and intelligence, from which they can find the truth and their own values. And if they cannot protect that, there will be no more science and no training.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan, Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU, said: “It is necessary to form institutions and legal foundations, linked to cultural and educational foundations. There needs to be a comprehensive regulatory framework for academic research from the state perspective.”
From the perspective of developing a system of domestic scientific journals and forming a database of scientific research, Professor Le Quoc Hoi, National Economics University, said: Vietnam needs to strongly develop domestic journals that meet international standards.
At the same time, it is necessary to create a database as a premise for a national data citation system.
In his concluding remarks at the workshop, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Tran Hong Thai affirmed that integrity in scientific research is an important issue; the reflections of scientists and the media on the issue of scientific integrity in recent years show that it is time to pay attention and listen.
According to Deputy Minister Tran Hong Thai, integrity is an “open” concept, but there must be updates and general guidance for implementation. Integrity affects the intellectual community and the teaching community, so without investigation and evidence, it cannot be named, affecting individual scientists and scientific groups.
Proposing some tasks to be done in the coming time, Deputy Minister Tran Hong Thai emphasized that the immediate thing to do is for state management units to urgently study and propose the format of guiding documents and urge universities and research institutes to implement regulations and rules on integrity.
Receiving the opinions of scientists at the workshop on building a database, researching criteria for monitoring journals, etc., Deputy Minister Tran Hong Thai said: The Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education and Training will research to soon have a database on science and technology, creating resources for state management.
At the same time, it will study and review the criteria for monitoring journals and the development orientation of the domestic scientific journal system.
The Deputy Minister also said that the opinions at the workshop will be considered for incorporation into the provisions when changing the Law on Science and Technology.
“The two ministries together realized that it was time for state management agencies to step in on integrity and disclosure. Try to create a healthy scientific and technological environment.
Today's workshop is the beginning for the two Ministries to commit to accompanying scientists and media agencies towards better education and science, bringing more happiness," said Deputy Minister Tran Hong Thai, and shared: "Try to behave with integrity, culture and civilization, because we are behaving with scientists and teachers."
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