Improving the quality of scientific works.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Tran Anh Tuan, Chief of the Office of the State Council of Professors, in 2025 there will be 117 institutional Councils of Professors with 1,292 registered candidates, including 119 candidates for Professor and 1,173 candidates for Associate Professor.

The northern region has 68 councils with 729 candidates, the central region has 10 councils with 149 candidates, and the southern region has 39 councils with 413 candidates. The number of candidates in each council ranges from 1 to 46.

Notably, in 2025, five professorial councils in specific and interdisciplinary fields (Information Technology, Electrical-Electronics-Automation, Water Resources, Mathematics, and Physics) will review applications entirely online; candidates will submit their applications electronically. The remaining 23 councils will evaluate applications using online software, along with paper documents.

Candidates for Professor must be Associate Professors; candidates for Associate Professor must hold a PhD. During the recognition process, candidates must have served as the primary supervisor of doctoral and master's students; led the compilation of textbooks for undergraduate or higher education; and meet requirements regarding teaching experience, lecture hours, and scientific publications.

The Office of the State Council of Professors is conducting training on the process of evaluating and granting professorship and associate professorship qualifications for 2025.

The research works that are scored include: scientific articles as the main author published in prestigious international journals, patents, utility models, works of art, and achievements in national or international sports training or competition.

Candidates for Professor must be the primary author of at least 5 published scientific works; candidates for Associate Professor need a minimum of 3 works.

A "scientific article" is understood as a work with an internationally recognized ISSN number, clearly demonstrating the scientific idea, research content, research status in Vietnam and abroad, theoretical and applied contributions, methods, sources, and references.

Candidates for Professor must have led at least two ministerial-level science and technology projects or one national-level project that has been successfully completed and meets or exceeds the required standards.

Candidates for Associate Professor must have led at least two institutional-level projects or one ministerial-level project that has been successfully completed and meets or exceeds the required standards.

According to some scientists, to ensure the recognition of the titles of Professor and Associate Professor, candidates need to provide clear, accurate scientific evidence that meets the prescribed criteria.

Several practical issues were raised, such as: how should papers from international conferences included in a comprehensive book be substantiated – should the entire book be included, or just the cover, table of contents, and chapters? Should patents granted abroad in English be translated or accompanied by the original?

Candidate Lam To Trang (Ho Chi Minh City Open University) is concerned about how to declare her participation if she is involved in multiple research projects managed by different educational institutions.

Candidate Nguyen Hoang Dinh (Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy) raised the question of whether articles with a single author violate scientific integrity.

Professor, Dr. Vo Van Sen, Chairman of the Science and Training Council of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City), believes that special attention should be paid to the use of AI in research. “AI is a matter of our time, so it needs to be specifically and strictly regulated to ensure transparency and scientific integrity for candidates,” he emphasized.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Anh Tuan stated that each scientific work considered for the title of Professor or Associate Professor must be relevant to the registered field and specialization, and points must be converted according to regulations, based on scientific quality.

For articles, points are calculated based on the journal's impact factor and the article's citation index. Popular science articles, research summaries, summary reports, reviews, evaluations, translations, etc., are not included in the scoring.

He noted that if a candidate publishes many works in a short period of time, it is unreasonable in terms of research capacity. Therefore, the committee needs to carefully consider and may question the reasons, motivations, and funding sources for conducting research in such a short time.

Furthermore, to ensure transparency and scientific integrity in the process of recognizing Professor and Associate Professor titles, the candidate's comprehensive scientific report must clearly outline their research directions with specific details: reasons for implementation, research methods, research results, and training associated with each research direction. Candidates must clearly analyze the relationship between the research directions and the achieved results. The report should also state future research directions and affirm the candidate's ability to meet the standards for Professor and Associate Professor titles.

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