Academics fight against rampant misconduct

The Scientist 02 November 2019

Plagiarism, pseudoscience, bribes and cheating. The threats to academia in Ukraine are many, according to false-science, a group of around 10 Ukrainian scientists dedicated to battling cheaters, write Emil Filtenborg and Stefan Weichert for The Scientist.

“Abroad, if you catch someone in a lie, there will be a catastrophe – a disaster,” says Victor Dosenko, a member of the group and head of the general and molecular pathophysiology department at the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences. “In our country, however, cheating is not seen as a problem.”

Observing issues such as plagiarism even among top university staff, Dosenko felt obligated, like other members of false-science, to fight for Ukrainian academia. Before the 2014 revolution in Ukraine, it was difficult to criticise the system, he explains. The removal of the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych led not only to changes in politics but also to the liberation of Ukrainian academia. Suddenly, criticism of the academic system was allowed, and this openness led to the gradual creation of false-science.
Full report on The Scientist site

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