What does the university say about the article with a student's name being removed?

As Thanh Nien newspaper reported, in the past few days, public opinion has been stirred up about a group of Vietnamese authors having their scientific paper removed because the work involved the director of a study abroad company and a number of high school students.

The main author of the article is Associate Professor Le Quang Thao, Department of Physics, University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (hereinafter referred to as University of Science).

The article was removed and Associate Professor Le Quang Thao was the first author; Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Diep, owner of a study abroad company, was the corresponding author.

PHOTO: SCREENSHOT

Will review activities guiding students in scientific research

Speaking with Thanh Nien reporter, Associate Professor Tran Quoc Binh, Vice Principal of the University of Natural Sciences, said that about ten days ago, when learning that Associate Professor Le Quang Thao's scientific article published in the Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems under Sage Publishing House was withdrawn, the school reminded Associate Professor Thao.

However, the retraction of the article is only an external sign. As for the nature of the incident (why it was withdrawn, the quality of the article, etc.), the school will work specifically with Mr. Thao.

Regarding the issue of university scientists guiding high school students in scientific research, the University of Natural Sciences has not yet had any regulations. Therefore, teachers in the school often work with students through personal channels. In the near future, the school will also pay attention to this activity, which is currently receiving a lot of negative public opinion, in order to review, guide and rectify.

"The school supports attracting high school students to scientific research, guiding them to get acquainted with research, but it must be substantial. The school can even consider opening a club for students, but opening a club is to help students gain knowledge and have a place to demonstrate their abilities, not to make their resume look good," Associate Professor Tran Quoc Binh expressed his opinion.

According to him, reality shows that in society, there are more and more students who want to learn and participate in scientific research. Meanwhile, conducting scientific research in high school is difficult. Therefore, creating conditions for students to access the university environment to practice research will make the activity more quality. However, because of the sensitivity of this activity, school leaders are considering it to avoid abuse or distortion.

The author of the removed article has just been honored as an outstanding scientist.

It is known that on May 15, at the Science, Technology and Innovation 2025 conference of Hanoi National University, Associate Professor Le Quang Thao was one of 147 scientists honored as outstanding scientists in 2024.

However, that day, Associate Professor Thao was not present on stage to receive the certificate of merit (although his name was still announced).

The criteria for Hanoi National University to honor outstanding scientists is the number of articles.

PHOTO: VNU

Accordingly, Hanoi National University has requested member units to submit a list of scientists with at least 5 articles published in journals listed in ISI and Scopus in the period 2023 - 2024. Associate Professor Thao satisfies this criterion (including the article that was just withdrawn).

Associate Professor Tran Quoc Binh informed: "When Mr. Thao's article was withdrawn, we asked for an explanation, but Mr. Thao said that the journal had not given a reason for withdrawing the article. The school must wait for the journal's official opinion before making a conclusion. When there is no conclusion, it is unreasonable to request that Hanoi National University change the award decision."

Regarding Associate Professor Thao being awarded as a scientist with "outstanding achievements", Associate Professor Tran Quoc Binh said that it was the decision of Hanoi National University. The University of Natural Sciences simply included Associate Professor Thao's name in the statistics of people with many articles published in journals in the ISI and Scopus categories.

The viewpoint of the University of Natural Sciences is very clear, not just because there are many articles, scientists are considered excellent. The assessment of the quality of a scientist's research activities depends on many factors, in which the most important is the assessment of experts on the quality of the scientist's work. This viewpoint has been reflected many times to Hanoi National University.

Tip of the iceberg

According to Thanh Nien 's investigation, last year Associate Professor Thao was indirectly warned by the leaders of the University of Natural Sciences (through the leaders of relevant departments and offices). The reason was that Associate Professor Thao had shown some signs that experts considered "problematic" such as: asking to go abroad often for personal work but in fact taking students to participate in science and technology competitions, the number of international publications increased rapidly, the research topics were scattered...

"If we only send 1-2 groups to compete, the research activities can still maintain quality. But when we accept many groups, of course there will be requirements that affect quality such as pressure to find topics, guidance time... Being caught up in the machine and making money, lacking teachers (prestigious senior scientists - PV) to advise, many people, especially young scientists, think that this is timely...", a leader at the University of Natural Sciences acknowledged.

According to many scientists, Associate Professor Thao is just an "exposed" case. There is currently a phenomenon of some scientists with research capacity, but are influenced by material interests, showing unhealthy behaviors in research activities or research guidance.

The fact that Associate Professor Le Quang Thao's article was withdrawn is another warning to the education and training sector and the scientific community in general about two issues.

One is the substance of students' scientific research activities. Two is the need to focus on the topics and quality of scientists' research. We should not create a mechanism to encourage scientists to chase quantity and evaluate scientific achievements by "counting cards".

With the mechanism of evaluating scientists focusing on "card counting" (meaning valuing the number of published scientific works), the issue of scientific integrity as well as the real contributions of scientists are being overlooked.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/truong-dai-hoc-noi-gi-ve-bai-bao-co-hoc-sinh-dung-ten-bi-go-185250521122317819.htm