Recently, public opinion was stirred up by the removal of an article by a group of Vietnamese authors from the Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems of Sage Publishing House.
The removed article is titled “Application of deep learning to wireless sensor networks to monitor emotions of high school students”, published online on August 3, 2023 and has been removed in the investigation campaign of Sage Publishing House since the beginning of 2024. The main author of the article is Associate Professor, Dr. Le Quang Thao, lecturer of the Physics Department, University of Science - Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The list of authors also includes 3 high school students from the following schools: Reigate Grammar School, Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, Nguyen Sieu Secondary and High School.
According to the notice of removal, the publisher discovered that the article had one or more of the following signs: Manipulated citations, including quotes unrelated to the content of the article. There were confusing, redundant paragraphs and distorted phrases; the possibility of unauthorized participation of a third party in the submission process...
According to many experts, only those with a master's or doctoral degree or higher can do scientific, appropriate research and publish it in international journals. (Illustration: TH)
According to Associate Professor Tran Quoc Binh, Vice Principal of the University of Natural Sciences, the fact that some high school students are co-authors in scientific research is a rare phenomenon, so it is easy to raise questions. However, what the school is more concerned about is the scientific contributions of students to the research.
The issue that many people are concerned about is the substance of students' scientific research activities; their contributions to research published in international scientific journals.
Speaking with VietNamNet, a PhD in the field of science and technology said that it is very difficult for students to participate and make real, active contributions to scientific research projects.
"There are also special cases in the world - usually child prodigies, but the percentage is very small. Especially in the field of science and technology, to do scientific research, suitable and published in the form of international articles, one usually needs to have a master's degree in science, doctorate or higher," he said.
According to this person, with their knowledge, high school students can usually only participate in stages such as: surveying, collecting data, statistics, or in practice, conducting experiments.
"In some cases, an instructor may give students a ready-made formula, and they simply follow it to collect experimental data. When conducting experiments, many students simply follow the teacher's instructions mechanically. As long as they follow the research method that was instructed, conduct a few experiments, and collect data honestly, they can still be considered to have made a contribution - even being listed as a co-author if appropriate.
However, that is only the data collection stage - one of dozens of steps in the scientific research process. To really contribute to the discovery or construction of a new scientific conclusion is very difficult, because students often do not have enough in-depth knowledge. Going from data to conclusions requires analytical ability, applying complex scientific tools and methods, which only professional researchers can undertake," he analyzed.
However, this person believes that the motivation for participating in scientific research projects of high school students is something that needs to be debated and considered.
“If students join me simply because of their passion for science and actively contribute to the project, and then have their names listed as co-authors, that is also a good thing and should not be prohibited. But if the motive is only to have their names in international articles to gain admission to universities or apply for scholarships to study abroad... in general, these are impure motives and should be discouraged. Because this is, first of all, not good for the students themselves, and then not beneficial for the research community,” he analyzed.
He believes that even in cases of good motivation, high school students participating in research projects should not be encouraged.
“At high school, students only need to focus on studying at the right level and with age-appropriate knowledge. When they go to university, they should try to learn basic knowledge and core foundations well, then gradually improve to master’s level and then to doctoral level to do research. There is no need to ‘skip ahead’ - high school students do scientific research. It is good to do this, but we really should not praise it or push it aside,” he said.
Another PhD student working at a university in Hanoi said that “science has no borders” and that even when an article is submitted to a journal, the reviewers sometimes do not know who the author is – a 17- or 20-year-old or an 80-year-old professor.
“It is true that doing research is not the job of students, let alone high school students, at least from graduate students. The number of university students and high school students who publish in international journals is very small. Therefore, those who publish international articles while still students or pupils must be special cases.”
This person said that one of the world's famous people who had an article published in an international magazine while still a high school student was the Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman, on the topic of Chemistry.
“Students can absolutely take on the survey, collect statistics, and even write. However, there are also cases where teachers, for some practical purpose, support their students to write articles to apply for university or master’s scholarships…” , he said.
However, the doctor said that in each case, only those involved know the specific motives, and it is difficult for outsiders to assess.
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/high-school-students-use-the-international-science-newspaper-in-reflection-ar944780.html
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