The Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) and the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) recently organized a workshop on academic integrity in research for the first time.

According to Prof Hoang Anh Tuan, rector of the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities, a member school of the Hanoi National University, there is no separate legal document about academic integrity, but the issue is mentioned in training requirements.

At his school, for example, since 2017, all doctoral dissertations have been scanned to discover copied content. The scanning was later applied to master’s theses and bachelor’s theses as well. The scanning is paid by the school.

However, according to Tuan, there still must be a legal framework on academic integrity from the angle of state management.

Currently, some academic units set requirements themselves about integrity. They set requirements on citations. For example, citations of more than 20 percent of content of other people are considered a violation.

However, when scanning scientific works with Vietnam-made software, the copied ratio is 20 percent, but the figure is up to 60 percent if scanning with foreign software.

“Therefore, it is necessary to apply a single standard tool to detect plagiarism,” Duc said. “The tool can be used to examine theses before the students’ defense."

In many countries, the fight against plagiarism and detecting identical content is implemented in general education as well, when students’ essays are also examined.

“If we are not serious about academic integrity, our science will become chaotic,” he said.

Nguyen Tai Dong from the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences noted that among disciplinary fields, science and technology, and education and training require integrity the most, because scientists pursue knowledge, wisdom, and truth. Meanwhile, today's violations are very sophisticated and complex.

However, he affirmed that Vietnam is not a ‘desert’ in terms of academic integrity. There are regulations on this issue which can be found in laws, government decrees and rules set up by organizations and journals.

“For example, our Philosophy - Politics - Sociology Council has witnessed strong arguments and disagreements recently. Of the 24 topics for research, only 30 percent have been approved,” he said.

However, there is still no legal framework on plagiarism control for common application at all academic units. Therefore, it is necessary to build a framework now, and there should be leading units pioneering in applying the regulations.

Duong Tu, PhD, from Purdue University, commented that violations of academic integrity are getting more sophisticated. Plagiarism and copying others’ research have become more common in recent years.

He said that with the rapid development of technology and artificial intelligence (AI), new methods of fraud have been created. Particularly, with high technologies, creating a fake network of scientists, from authors to critics to editor-in-chief, is feasible.

“If we are not aware of the existence of such sophisticated fraud, academic chaos will occur,” he warned.

Tu said the assessment of research works needs to be reformed. Instead of running after quantity, scientists need to focus on research quality by returning to knowledge creation and knowledge discovery to serve society.

““Researchers need to feel joy and happiness when they are sponsored by society to conduct research and serve the community. In addition, there must be policies to ensure benefits, so that researchers can live well and work with peace of mind without having to trade their honesty and integrity for food and clothing," Tu said.

Phung Ho Hai, head of the Mathematics Institute under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, said that if academic professionals violate the principle of academic integrity because of certain conditions, these conditions must be changed.

“If they cannot earn enough money to cover their basic needs, they have nothing to lose. If so, they will give up a sense of morality and integrity to ‘sell’ their works, and even set up a ‘ring’ of research work production,” he said.

Thuy Nga