Regarding the accusation that Associate Professor Dr. Dinh Cong Huong sold his scientific research paper, which is a violation of "scientific integrity," VTC News contacted several scientists to hear their views on the matter.
Speaking to VTC News, a scientist living and working in Ho Chi Minh City stated that Mr. Huong was not wrong to publish the article about his research, and that the public has no right to discuss right or wrong, or to elevate the concept of "scientific integrity" to stifle the intellectual development of a talented scientist who has made many contributions to scientific research projects.
Associate Professor Dr. Dinh Cong Huong. (Photo: HN)
According to this scientist, the concept of scientific integrity is absent from both legal and sub-legal texts. The term "scientific integrity" is a term coined and used among researchers; in reality, no document provides a clear definition of scientific integrity.
In fact, there is an ethics committee that assesses the ethics of scientists before they register to participate in research projects. However, many organizations skip this step, and when invited to participate in a scientific research project, researchers must obtain permission from their managing organization.
Scientific ethics is a crucial and fundamental issue in the field of scientific research, attracting attention not only from the scientific community but also from society as a whole. However, defining specific ethical standards in science is not an easy question to answer.
"The ethical standards of science are summarized in six principles: Intellectual honesty, carefulness, intellectual freedom, openness – transparency, proper credit recognition, and public responsibility," the scientist added.
According to this person, every profession in society, especially those related to social welfare or affecting a large population, has its own ethical standards for professional conduct.
Scientific activities in general, and scientific research in particular, have a significant impact on society and people; therefore, ethical standards play a fundamental role for scientists.
"Ethical standards are not laws, but rather conventions or rules of conduct accepted by members of a professional field as guidelines for practice. These conventions permit, prohibit, or establish procedures for how to behave in different situations."
In scientific practice, the term "conduct" encompasses specialized areas such as experimentation, testing, teaching and training, data analysis, data management, data sharing, publication, public presentation of research, and financial management," the researcher said.
The scientist further shared that both Quy Nhon University and the University of Industry, where Mr. Huong has worked, have commented that he has performed his duties well during his time at the universities.
However, according to the Civil Servant Law, Mr. Huong was wrong because he failed to report to his employing unit before undertaking a new project with another unit.
Furthermore, from an ethical standpoint, Mr. Huong was wrong to publish his scientific research findings, as the publication affected the evaluation scores of the units where he worked.
Specifically, if Mr. Huong works at unit A, but is credited as the researcher for unit B without mentioning unit A, then by default, the evaluation index for Mr. Huong's scientific research will be attributed to unit B and not unit A.
This would create an unfavorable environment for competition between institutions in the same field. If Mr. Huong collaborated on writing scientific research papers and had them published by institutions other than educational institutions, then Mr. Huong might not have been at fault in terms of publication.
However, the publication of the article about the scientific research occurred while he was a full-time lecturer at Quy Nhon University. Meanwhile, he had signed scientific research cooperation contracts with Ton Duc Thang University and Thu Dau Mot University.
"Scientists often focus solely on research, without giving any thought to the procedures or evaluation criteria of educational institutions, so they simply contribute their intellectual efforts. This story should serve as a valuable lesson."
"We shouldn't overanalyze right or wrong in this story. I think this is also a lesson for Mr. Huong and other scientific researchers. Besides, educational institutions themselves need to have specific documents clarifying this issue in more detail so that scientists can avoid such unfortunate incidents while contributing their intellectual resources," this scientist emphasized.
Previously, on October 31st, a "report on violations of scientific integrity by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dinh Cong Huong" was sent to the Nafosted Foundation's executive board, the Nafosted Foundation's Mathematics sector council, and numerous agencies and scientists.
According to MathSciNet statistics (an online mathematics directory database of the American Mathematical Society), author Dinh Cong Huong has a total of 42 scientific research papers, of which 13 are affiliated with Ton Duc Thang University and 4 are affiliated with Thu Dau Mot University.
His scientific articles published in journals from 2020 to 2022 did not list Quy Nhon University as his workplace, but instead listed the addresses of two other institutions.
According to scientists, this is "a serious violation of scientific integrity resulting from the buying and selling of international publications for emerging universities."
Lam Ngoc
Source
Comment (0)