A scientist asked to withdraw from the mathematics council, what did the leader of the NAFOSTED Foundation say?

Recently, an incident occurred that attracted the attention of many scientists in the domestic scientific community. On October 31, a number of mathematicians, including members of the NAFOSTED Mathematics Council, received a letter reflecting the violation of scientific integrity by Associate Professor Đ.CH, a member of the NAFOSTED Mathematics Council. The email recipient list included the address of Associate Professor Đ.CH.

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"I'm sorry…"

According to the content of the above letter, Associate Professor D.CH is a full-time lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry (formerly a full-time lecturer at Quy Nhon University). However, according to statistics from mathscinet, Associate Professor D.CH is the author of 42 scientific research works (scientific articles), of which 13 articles have Associate Professor D.CH's workplace address listed as Ton Duc Thang University, and 4 articles have the address of Thu Dau Mot University.

The letter also listed a number of articles in which Associate Professor D.CH only listed an address (either Ton Duc Thang University or Thu Dau Mot University) that was not his place of work. The author of the letter also emphasized that these were articles that had been published recently, since the manifestation of scientific integrity was severely criticized (after Thanh Nien Newspaper exposed the fact that some universities used the trick of "buying articles" to get into the rankings - PV).

Specifically, there are 3 articles published in 2022 that only list the address of Thu Dau Mot University. One article published on July 12, 2021 lists the address of Ton Duc Thang University.

It is known that almost immediately after that, Associate Professor Đ.CH sent an apology to the NAFOSTED Mathematics Council and teachers and colleagues in the mathematics sector. At the same time, Associate Professor Đ.CH sent a letter to the NAFOSTED Fund to apologize and ask to be removed from the list of the fund's Mathematics Council.

In the application sent to the NAFOSTED Fund, Associate Professor D.CH stated the reason for withdrawing from the Mathematics Council as follows: "Although I have been trying very hard in my research and have achieved some good results, in the past I have collaborated in scientific research with Ton Duc Thang University and Thu Dau Mot University (due to family economic reasons). I realize that this shortcoming has affected the reputation of the council. I apologize to the fund and the council and promise not to repeat this shortcoming again."

It is known that Associate Professor D.CH joined the Mathematics Council of NAFOSTED Fund from December 2022.

The foundation's principle is to respect the spirit of scientific integrity.

On November 2, speaking with Thanh Nien Newspaper, Dr. Pham Dinh Nguyen, Executive Director of NAFOSTED Fund, confirmed that the fund had received a letter requesting to withdraw from the Mathematics Council from Associate Professor D.CH.

Currently, the fund has not made a decision because personnel issues cannot be implemented after just a few exchanges. The appointment of members to the fund's scientific councils is a process, and dismissal must follow a similar process. First, the Mathematics Council must work together, then make a proposal for the fund's executive body to make an appropriate decision.

Dr. Nguyen said: "At this time, I can only say, first of all, the fund's operating principle is to respect the spirit of scientific integrity. Second, I see that Associate Professor D.CH is a decent and straightforward scientist. He proactively proposed to withdraw without waiting for the fund to have an opinion."

As for Professor Dinh Nho Hao, Chairman of the Mathematics Council of NAFOSTED, he refused to give his personal opinion. Regarding the Mathematics Council's opinion on whether Associate Professor D.CH violated scientific integrity or not, the council has not yet met, so Professor Hao cannot give his opinion.

Professor Hao said: "This is a topic that needs to be seriously discussed, what is integrity, what is a violation of integrity, when did the regulations (related to scientific integrity - PV) come into existence... It must be clear, otherwise my answer will not be accurate."

But Professor Hao also agreed that in the near future, the Mathematics Council needs to have a discussion to have a standard on scientific integrity in the council's activities.

"The members will have to discuss, then there will be an official document. I will only be able to respond when there is an official document. I will not respond based on emotions or personal opinions," Professor Hao shared.

"Withdrawal is obvious"

According to Professor Phung Ho Hai, a member of the NAFOSTED Mathematics Council, although he did not agree with the recording of Associate Professor D.CH's work address (not the address where Associate Professor D.CH works), he highly appreciated Associate Professor D.CH's decision.

Professor Do Duc Thai, a former member of the NAFOSTED Mathematics Council for three terms (Professor Thai left the council in 2022), said that any scientist with enough self-respect and integrity would see themselves as unsuitable to sit on councils reviewing scientific-related work if they saw themselves as violating scientific integrity.

"I think Associate Professor D.CH's request to withdraw from the council is an obvious action. A person with integrity would act like that, not to act like that is not worthy of respect," commented Professor Thai.

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