RSUH, RUDN, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, MGPPU were among the universities that established and published journals with violations. «University Transparency Laboratory» (Lupa) and T-invariant checked the state purchases of 100 higher education institutions and found out that some of them enter into contracts with dubious publications.
Why and who needs it
Teachers, researchers and students have different motives for publishing their research in scientific journals. For teachers or researchers, this is necessary if they want to be awarded the scientific degree of candidate or doctor of science. Different scientific specialties require different numbers of published articles with the main results of the dissertation. For example, to obtain a PhD in historical, pedagogical, political, psychological, sociological, philological, philosophical, economic, legal branches of science, art history, cultural studies and theology, the applicant must publish at least three scientific publications, and at least two in other sciences. And the number of published articles must be at least two or three, depending on the area of interest. In order to qualify for the degree of Doctor of Science, the applicant must publish — depending on the scientific specialty — at least 10 to 15 publications. The number of publications presented in the form of a scientific report must be at least 50 over the past 10 years. Students need publications not only for their future academic career, but also to receive an increased scholarship. The higher the level of publication, the more additional points the student will receive in the competition. For example, HAC articles, that is, those approved by the Higher Attestation Commission, give the highest number of points. It is assumed that these are high-quality journals, in which you cannot just publish.
Turnkey article
In addition to writing such articles, there is another way. You can buy a scientific publication in special journals, and if you successfully pass the selection, you can receive an increased scholarship or an academic degree. This is why some people resort to the services of paid publications. For example, at Moscow State University, for a scientific article published in a VAK journal, they give 10 points at once, in other publications – 5 points.
The level of “prestige” of such journals varies – from those that are not included in the RSCI (Russian Science Citation Index) to journals included in the list of those recommended by the Higher Attestation Commission.
Dissernet (a community of experts who identify violations in the defense of dissertations and the awarding of academic degrees) has 21 criteria by which is determinedincorrect editorial policy and dishonesty of scientific publications: the presence on the editorial board of persons involved in the unjustified awarding of scientific degrees; citation fraud; accelerated publication of articles for a fee, etc. Based on the number of violations, journals are divided into the following categories (from the largest number of such criteria to the smallest):
- journals with gross violations of publication ethics;
- journals with significant violations;
- journals with shortcomings.
No violations means that the journal has an adequate publication policy.
The cost of publication in scientific journals depends on the volume of the article, the field, the release date and the preliminary readiness of the material. Most often, “publishers” providing such services calculate the cost of each publication separately.
The “turnkey article” service (including its writing) in one of these journals costs 5,500 rubles. But prices on the market vary greatly. Some publishers promise to publish an article of any length and in any specialty in VAK journals at a price of 11,000 rubles. The final cost of publication is again determined individually. In addition, publishing houses provide additional services, such as increasing the originality of the article text, proofreading, editing, writing annotations, keywords and other revisions of the article.
Which universities purchase publications in low-quality scientific journals
Lupa and T-invariant analyzed the purchases of all universities from the RAEX from 2020 to 2023. A total of 100 universities were inspected. As a result, we found that seven universities had purchases for the provision of services for the preparation and placement of scientific articles in journals with various violations. These educational institutions were:
- Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin — 1 purchase for the publication of articles in the journal “Theory and Practice of Physical Culture” No. 1 (a journal with gross violations) in the amount of 810,000 rubles;
- Saint Petersburg Mining University — 1 purchase for the provision of services for the placement of articles in the journal “Mining Information and Analytical Bulletin” (a journal with serious violations) for the amount of 700,000 rubles;
- National Research University Moscow State University of Civil Engineering — 7 purchases of article publications in the journal “Industrial and Civil Construction” (a journal with significant violations) for a total of 1,981,550 rubles;
- BELSU National Research University — 11 purchases of articles in journals with violations for a total of 3,991,500 rubles (1 purchase in the “Mining Journal” — a journal with significant violations, 2 purchases in “Problems of Social Hygiene, Health Care and History of Medicine” — a journal with significant violations, 3 purchases in “Cardiovascular Therapy and Prevention” — a journal working on improvements, 3 purchases in “Theory and Practice of Physical Culture” — a journal with gross violations, 1 purchase in “Pharmacy and Pharmacology” — a journal with significant violations, 1 purchase in “Preventive Medicine” — a journal with significant violations);
- Kazan State Medical University — 5 purchases in several journals for a total of 1,031,800 rubles (3 purchases in the “Bulletin of Contemporary Clinical Medicine” — a journal with significant violations, 2 purchases in the “Neurological Bulletin” — a journal with shortcomings);span>
- SPbGASU — 2 purchases for reviewing and posting articles for a total of 505,400 rubles (1 purchase in Industrial and Civil Engineering — a journal with significant violations, 1 purchase in Theory and Practice of Physical Culture — a journal with gross violations);
- Dubna State University — no problems with purchasing articles, but there is a purchase of “Guidance in practice (research work) in the direction of the master’s degree “Pedagogical education” (Krivtsov A.I.)”, and this teacher has problems in reporting on grants;
- Kazan National Research Technological University — 2 purchases for the publication of articles in several journals for a total of 630,000 rubles.
In addition, universities can act as publishers and founders of journals. We analyzed the same universities included in the RAEX list. 70 universities acted as founders and publishers of journals with various violations. This is more than half of the RAEX rating.
“According to our data, more than 200 university rectors have fake dissertations or publications in scientific journals. None of them were fired. Recently, a scam related to the International Publisher scientific article exchange was uncovered. Hundreds of Russian university professors who purchased publications through this exchange were named. None of them were punished. If you are not punished for stealing, over time you will come to an agreement with your conscience and start stealing too. There is nothing surprising about this,” concludes the co-founder of the community Dissernet Andrey Rostovtsev.
Text: Sasha Angel with the participation of Elizaveta Tsybulina
Саша Ангел 19.08.2024