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Over the past 5 years of Dissernet’s activity, dozens of members of the Higher Attestation Commission (ES VAK) expert councils have been identified who were directly involved in the defense of dissertations with massive incorrect borrowings. However, reputational mechanisms in a number of sciences still do not work, and such persons are still not prohibited from entering the Higher Attestation Commission.
Unfortunately, the requirements for members of the HAC expert councils have not changed since the end of 2013. Candidates are subject to only a few qualification requirements: a doctorate degree, at least 10 publications in peer-reviewed scientific publications over the past 5 years (this refers primarily to journals listed by the Higher Attestation Commission).
Such a low qualification threshold for joining the expert councils of the Higher Attestation Commission is combined with the presence in them of persons who have repeatedly been seen accompanying dissertations with massive incorrect borrowings. Their presence on expert councils guarantees the passage of low-quality dissertations defended in “home” organizations through the Higher Attestation Commission and helps fight off applications for deprivation of academic degrees.
A striking negative example of the above can be the activities of M.I. Lomakin, deputy. Chairman of the Council on Industrial and Regional Economics, who for many years not only covered up the activities of the dissertation council on economics in Standardinform, but also contributed to the dissemination of ideas that incorrect borrowings are not such in the case of the “general scientific school”, descriptions of common truths or known phenomena.
Despite the ongoing purges of expert councils (for example, councils on economics in 2014), there are still those doctors of science who acted as scientific supervisors or opponents of fake dissertations (this is typical mainly for expert councils in the humanities). See Dissernet collections.
A planned rotation of members of all expert councils of the Higher Attestation Commission is currently taking place. Lists of candidates have been published on the HAC website, which Dissernet analyzed based on several indicators:
- participation in the defense of dissertations with massive incorrect borrowings (as a supervisor and opponent);
- having your own dissertation with incorrect borrowings;
- the presence of repeated publications, publications with mysterious authorship, or publications with incorrect borrowings;
- the presence of publications in journals of the Scopus database that were excluded from it for the lack of independent review (we are primarily talking about “junk” journals that practice paid publications without appropriate review).
The results of our monitoring are grouped in Table 1.
Table 1. Results of Dissernet monitoring for candidates for membership in the Economic Commission of the Higher Attestation Commission
| Expert advice | Number of candidates | Number of problematic candidates | Number of accompanying dissertations with incorrect borrowings | Number of candidates with their own dissertation with incorrect borrowings | Number of problematic publications |
| 80 | 33 | 93 | 5 | 28 | |
| ES on pedagogy | 42 | 14 | 32 | 1 | 13 |
| ES by right | 48 | 23 | 25 | 0 | 14 |
| 51 | 12 | 21 | 0 | 2 | |
| ES in philosophy, sociology, cultural studies | 30 | 12 | 18 | 0 | 2 |
| ES in Psychology | 13 | 3 | 11 | 1 | 1 |
| ES in Political Science | 13 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 3 |
| ES on management and computer science | 39 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| ES on agronomy | 18 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 3 |
| ES on history | 42 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| ES in Therapeutic Sciences | 41 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| ES on Engineering and Agricultural Sciences | 28 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| ES in Surgical Sciences | 34 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| ES in Biomedical Sciences | 47 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| ES on Animal Sciences | 22 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| ES in mathematics | 30 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| ES on Medical and Preventive Sciences | 18 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| ES in philology and art history | 19 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| ES on construction and architecture | 32 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 647 | 130 | 242 | 8 | 75 |
If in most of the 19 councils with problematic candidates only a few doctors of science were found, for whom Dissernet has questions, then in five of them we are talking about dozens of such candidates. These are primarily the expert councils of the Higher Attestation Commission on economics (both councils), law, pedagogy and philosophy. It is in these sciences that the largest number of dissertations with massive incorrect borrowings are registered. Only 13 candidates were proposed for the Higher Attestation Commission in psychology, so few violators of academic ethics were found. Detailed information about each candidate can be found here.
The situation with the expert council on industrial and regional economics can be called catastrophic. About 40% of candidates (33 out of 80) are involved in supporting dissertations with massive incorrect borrowings, or have an unoriginal dissertation, or have vague ideas about academic ethics, or all three. And taking into account people who published in “junk” Scopus journals, their number reaches 46 (more than 55%). For example, Naili Gumerovna Bagautdinova from the Kazan Federal University has 27 supported fake dissertations, according to Dissernet. One of her applicants, Yu. V. Zhiltsova, was already deprived of her Doctor of Economics degree in April 2017. And if, in accordance with the new norm, N. G. Bagautdinova cannot sit on the dissertation council for 5 years, then there are no such restrictions in relation to the expert council of the Higher Attestation Commission.
Among the candidates is also a member of the recently closed dissertation council of Standardinform, Alexander Vladimirovich Dokukin. In addition to supporting dissertations with massive incorrect borrowings, it was he who acted as a representative of S. Kalinovsky and O. Monogarov, plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Russian Federation challenging the application of a 10-year statute of limitations to dissertations defended in 2011-2013. In addition, he defends the rights of dissertation candidates to copy well-known truths.
Five candidates for this expert council have signs of unoriginality in their own dissertation: Alexey Valentinovich Bogoviz, Irina Valerievna Burenina, Georgy Iskanderovich Idrisov, Tatyana Sergeevna Kolmykova, Salima Aleksandrovna Makhosheva.
Other candidates - leaders in supporting dissertations with massive incorrect borrowings - can be judged from Table 2.
Table 2 shows the leaders in supporting fake dissertations with massive incorrect borrowings among candidates for the expert councils of the Higher Attestation Commission. According to the table, it can be seen that among the candidates there are many representatives of universities and scientific organizations from the southern regions of Russia, primarily Caucasian ones, as well as specialists from agricultural universities and organizations in non-agricultural councils (for example, in economics, and not in industry).
table 2
Leading candidates in supporting low-quality dissertations
| Candidate | Organization | Expert advice | Number of supported low-quality dissertations | Personal dissertation with signs of unoriginality | Number of problematic publications |
| Bagautdinova Nailya Gumerovna | Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University | ES on industrial and regional economics | 27 | 0 | 2 |
| Chervova Albina Aleksandrovna | Ivanovo State University | ES on pedagogy | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Kandybovich Sergey Lvovich | Ryazan State University named after S.A. Yesenina | ES in Psychology | 9 | 0 | 1 |
| Dokukin Alexander Vladimirovich | Academy of Standardization, Metrology and Certification | ES on industrial and regional economics | 7 | 0 | 2 |
| Galachieva Svetlana Vladimirovna | North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute (State Technological University) | ES on industrial and regional economics | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| Kharlamov Andrey Viktorovich | St. Petersburg State Economic University | ES on economic theory, finance and world economy | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Vartumyan Arushan Arushanovich | ES in Political Science | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kashukoev Murat Vladimirovich | Kabardino-Balkarian State Agrarian University named after V.M. Kokova | ES on agronomy | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Melnikov Alexander Borisovich500 | Kuban State Agrarian University named after I.T. Trubilina" | ES on industrial and regional economics | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Makhosheva Salima Alexandrovna | Federal Scientific Center "Kabardino-Balkarian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences" | ES on industrial and regional economics | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Parakhina Valentina Nikolaevna | "North Caucasus Federal University | ES on industrial and regional economics | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Gorlov Sergey Mikhailovich | North Caucasus Federal University | ES on economic theory, finance and world economy | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Bogoudinova Rosa Zakirovna | Kazan National Research Technological University | ES on pedagogy | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Bogoviz Alexey Valentinovich | ES on industrial and regional economics | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
| Doroshenko Yuri Anatolievich | Belgorod State Technological University named after. V.G. Shukhova | ES on industrial and regional economics | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Lukmanova Inessa Galeevna | National Research Moscow State University of Civil Engineering | ES on industrial and regional economics | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Miller Alexander Emelyanovich | Omsk State University named after. F.M. Dostoevsky | ES on industrial and regional economics | 3 | 0 | 7 |
|
Avarsky Nabi Dalgatovich (Magomedov Akhmed-Nabi Dalgatovich) |
All-Russian Research Institute of Agricultural Economics | ES on economic theory, finance and world economy | 3 | 0 | 0 |
The situation with this expert council is a reflection of the situation in this branch of science. About a third of the dissertations (more than 2,500) with massive incorrect borrowings that Dissernet discovered were defended in the specialty of this expert council on 00/08/05 (against 600 fake dissertations defended in other branches of economic science).
It is likely that in this branch of science (08.00.05) there are not many professional economists with a good reputation and understanding of the principles of academic ethics who would want to work in the Higher Attestation Commission. In this case, apparently, it is necessary to talk about reforming both the expert council itself and the entire passport of the specialty, as well as reducing the number of dissertation councils in a given specialty (in Russia now every 18th dissertation council awards a degree in the specialty 08.00.05).
In the Economic Theory, Finance and World Economy Council, the situation is somewhat better than in the neighboring Council on Economics. However, several candidates are of particular concern. Firstly, this is Andrey Viktorovich Kharlamov from the St. Petersburg State University of Economics, who participated in at least 6 dissertation defenses with massive incorrect borrowings. Secondly, Nabi Dalgatovich Avarsky from the All-Russian Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, who was not known by this name either in Dissernet or among international economists (he is running in the specialty 08.00.14 - “world economics”). However, it turned out that until recently N.D. Avarsky published under the name of Akhmed-Nabi Dalgatovich Magomedov and was known to Dissernet as a participant in three dishonest defenses.
Of particular concern are the publications of candidates for the Higher Attestation Commission in the journals of the Scopus database. An analysis of candidates from two Higher Attestation Examinations in economics showed that 27 candidates for the Higher Attestation Examination in industrial and regional economics and 14 Higher Attestation Essays in economic theory, finance and world economics are published in “junk” Scopus journals (i.e. in those journals that were excluded from the database for the lack of, as a rule, independent review).
Most of the publications were published in magazines such as International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Asian Social Science, World Applied Sciences Journal, Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Middle East Journal of Scientific Research, Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, International Business Management, Actual Problems of Economics, Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, Life Science Journal. Thus, N. G. Bagautdinova from Kazan Federal University had 73 such articles for the years 2012–2016.
It should be noted that KFU is the third organization in Russia in terms of the number of publications in the Scopus database on economics due to publications in “junk” journals. And this year the university will probably overtake the Higher School of Economics in this indicator. On the one hand, this is, of course, a consequence of the requirements of the Ministry of Education and Science regarding publications in international journals. And this requirement is formally met - through publications for a fee. And the university, in turn, rewards those authors who publish in Scopus journals.
But on the other hand, candidates for the Higher Attestation Commission from Moscow State University and the Higher School of Economics are published in quality international journals. This suggests that the leading scientist, who should be present on the ES of the Higher Attestation Commission in accordance with the Regulations on the Expert Council, is unlikely to publish in dubious journals.
Conclusions: An analysis of Dissernet showed that among the candidates for the ES of the Higher Attestation Commission there are persons who have submitted more than 240 dissertations with massive incorrect borrowings. 8 candidates have their own thesis with signs of unoriginality. It is necessary to reform the composition of the ES of the Higher Attestation Commission and introduce a ban on the participation in it of persons who were involved in dishonest defenses as a scientific supervisor or opponent.
Ph.D. econ. Sciences, PhD
Photo: Evgeny Gurko / Kommersant
The Dissernet network community, which is dedicated to identifying scientific papers written using plagiarism, has compiled anti-ratings of universities, dissertation councils and scientists involved in the appearance of “fake” dissertations. Community experts estimate the volume of the dissertation business at approximately $200 million a year.
Universities are dissertation factories
The leaders in the number of defended candidate and doctoral works with signs of plagiarism, according to Dissernet, were the Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPGU, 232 similar dissertations), the Russian Academy of Public Administration (in 2010 it was merged with the Academy of National Economy and reorganized into RANEPA, 182 works) and Tambov State University named after G.R. Derzhavin (TSU named after Derzhavin, 126 works).
The Russian State Social University (RGSU) took fourth place with 111 dissertations, as stated in the Dissernet study on the structure, volume and key players of the dissertation industry in Russia from 2013 (the year Dissernet was created) to 2017.
In total, the community discovered 7251 dissertations with plagiarism, substitution of experimental and statistical data, observations (or “fake” dissertations, as they are called on Dissernet itself).
RBC sent requests to the top ten universities in the Dissernet anti-rating with a request to comment on these findings. The press service of RANEPA reported that there have been no dishonest dissertations at the Academy since the introduction of the anti-plagiarism system in 2010, although its predecessor, RAGS, had such problems, which is why it was annexed to the Academy of National Economy.
Tambov State University named after Derzhavin called Dissernet’s calculations objective. “The presence of a university in the anti-rating largely reflects the quality of once protected research. Dissertation councils that committed violations of scientific ethics are closed. The vast majority of defended works with plagiarism were admitted by the dissertation council on economic sciences, headed by the former leadership of the university (the leadership of the university was replaced in 2016). The defense of dissertations in it was put on stream, which is impossible without plagiarism and/or rewriting,” notes the response from the university press service, which was received after the publication of the material.
Not all large Russian universities included in the ranking are “dissertation factories,” the report’s authors emphasize. For example, at Moscow State University. Lomonosov, which is in eighth place in terms of the number of “fake” dissertations, almost all plagiarism is generated by individual dissertation councils and professors, according to Dissernet.
How does a dissertation defense proceed?
Defense of a dissertation in Russia takes place in several stages. Any work, both doctoral and candidate, is first reviewed by the dissertation council at a Russian university or scientific institution. The doctoral dissertation is additionally reviewed by the expert council of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) under the Ministry of Education and Science. In both cases, the final decision is confirmed by order of the ministry after consideration of the issue by the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission.
Deprivation of a degree follows a similar procedure: the expert council of the Higher Attestation Commission sends the work for consideration to the dissertation council, then it is returned to the expert council. The final decision is made by the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission.
Problematic discouncils
The most productive dissertation councils, which generate the largest number of “fake” dissertations, have already been closed, Dissernet recorded. Among them is the Moscow State Pedagogical University Council on History, which published 178 low-quality works, the Council on Economics at TSU named after. Derzhavin, who published 90 works, and the Economics Council of the State Academy of Investment Sector Specialists - 86 works. “It may seem that they are closed due to the discovery of the indicated factories of “fake” dissertations in them. Unfortunately, we do not know whether this circumstance was taken into account when making the decision to terminate the activities of such dissertation councils,” note the authors of the report.
Of the existing dissertation councils, the leader in “fake” works is the Council on Economics of the Ural State Agrarian University. He has 40 such dissertations. In second place is the dissertation council for pedagogical sciences of the Military University of the Ministry of Defense. 33 dissertations with plagiarism were defended there, according to Dissernet.
RBC sent requests to all universities and scientific institutions where dissertation councils from the Dissernet list operate.
In total, as of January 15, 2018, there are 2,034 active dissertation councils in Russia, according to Dissernet. Of these, 392 are involved in “fake” dissertations, experts say. The total number of dishonest works protected in existing councils is 1486. Dissernet lists 89 councils as factories of “fake” dissertations: five or more dishonest works are protected in them (947 in total). “Closing 5% of existing dissertation councils solves 65% of the problems with unfair borrowing in the scientific certification system,” concludes Dissernet.
This rating was headed by Doctor of Economic Sciences Igor Ryzhov. He took part 45 times in the defense of “unscrupulous” works, according to Dissernet, and was a member of the dissertation council at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Standardinform (now closed). RBC was unable to contact Ryzhov.
The second and third places were taken by former professor of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Anatoly Egorov (at the time of publication he was listed as an employee of the institute on its official website) and a professor of the Moscow State University of Technology and Management. K.G. Razumovsky Fedor Sterlikov with participation in the defense of 41 and 40 “fake” dissertations, respectively, say the authors of the rating.
It was not possible to contact the RBC scientists listed on the list; a request was sent to their universities asking them to comment on the rating.
Dissernet is confident that the chance of accidentally participating in the defense of a “fake” dissertation is always there, but it decreases if a person is noticed in this more than once. “We consider it impossible to randomly oppose and give positive feedback to a large number of works with large-scale borrowings,” the Dissernet report says. While working with an applicant, a supervisor cannot help but see that the work was not actually done, and that the text was compiled from other people’s works, community experts believe.
Problem Specializations
Separately, Dissernet studied in which specialties the most “fake” dissertations were defended. The leaders are economics, pedagogy and jurisprudence.
How much does a dissertation cost?
Dissernet co-founder Andrei Zayakin told RBC that, according to community experts, on average defending a candidate’s dissertation costs from $10 thousand, a doctoral dissertation from $25 thousand. “For some careless officials, a degree allows them to get a job in universities and become “good” rectors and vice-rectors . The second case is judges and prosecutors: these intellectualized law enforcers have more career opportunities if they have a degree. Another option is people who want to get a scientific degree, like a gold ring in their nostrils, they just want a beautiful inscription on a business card,” Zayakin said about the main clients of the “dissertation factories.”
According to Dissernet estimates, in the 2000s, an average of up to 35 thousand dissertations were defended in Russia, after the advent of Dissernet and the Anti-Plagiarism system - 12-13 thousand per year. “I’ll assume that the difference is the fake work,” says Zayakin.
,> ,> ,>"Continuous Struggle"
The Ministry of Education and Science told RBC that work to improve the quality of the certification system for scientific workers, its openness and transparency is ongoing. They also note a decrease in the number of dissertation councils where defenses are held - from 2828 in 2013 to 2040 as of December 19, 2017. The statistics are explained by the tightening of requirements for scientific papers and the fight against plagiarism. In 2017, 197 decisions of dissertation councils on awarding an academic degree were canceled, and 41 people with a degree were deprived. The number of dissertation defenses in Russia has more than halved over four years, from 24,019 to 11,789. The ministry notes that the preparation of amendments to the regulations on the awarding of academic degrees and on the expert councils of the Higher Attestation Commission is at the final stage.
Today the dissertation council of the Ural Federal University is to consider an application to deprive the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky of his doctorate.
The complaint against the minister’s dissertation was jointly written by historians Vyacheslav Kozlyakov, Konstantin Yerusalimsky and Dissernet expert linguist Ivan Babitsky. On the eve of the council’s historic decision, Kommersant reminds readers what “Dissernet” is, how it works, what it has achieved, and what complaints it makes about the minister’s dissertation.
What is Dissernet?
“Dissernet” is not officially registered anywhere - its creators prefer to use the wording “free online community.” In essence, this is an informal association of scientists, lawyers, journalists and citizens who sympathize with them, who on a voluntary basis conduct public examinations of candidate and doctoral dissertations. Community activists are looking for plagiarism, links to non-existent scientific articles and other violations there. According to Dissernet, their work made it possible to identify the underground industry of creating fake scientific papers, reveal the network of their authors and owners, and also compile a list of universities where plagiarism in dissertations is most common.
Who created the project and when
Dissernet was founded in 2013 by physicists Andrei Rostovtsev and Andrei Zayakin, biologist Mikhail Gelfand, philosopher Kirill Mikhailov and journalist Sergei Parkhomenko. They say that the idea of bringing order to the field of dissertations has been discussed in the scientific community for a long time, but the reason was the scandal surrounding the Kolmogorov boarding school at Moscow State University. In 2012, Moscow State University rector Viktor Sadovnichy appointed 31-year-old Andrei Andriyanov, a member of the ONF, who had no scientific or pedagogical achievements, as director of the elite mathematics school. Outraged by this choice, parents and school graduates began to study the biography of the new director - and discovered that he graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry, but defended his dissertation on modern history. Later it turned out that in his dissertation he referred to scientific articles that do not exist in nature. The Ministry of Education and Science created a special commission to investigate what was happening, which ultimately recommended depriving Mr. Andriyanov of his academic degree and disbanding the dissertation council at Moscow State Pedagogical University, which allowed him to defend his poor-quality work. After this, the idea of creating “Dissernet” appeared to continue checking.
How much money does Dissernet exist on?
The creators claim that the community lives off voluntary donations and is not funded by government agencies, socio-political movements or commercial companies.
How dissertation texts are checked
First, Dissernet experts analyze each work using special software. Thus, Andrey Rostovtsev wrote “Professor Rostovtsev’s Dissertation Grinder” in Perl - this program breaks the text into small pieces and compares them with open Internet sources, library databases and the Anti-Plagiarism service. The analysis of identified matches is carried out by an expert - he checks whether the citations are formatted correctly, whether there are borrowings from earlier works of the same author, etc. As a result, Dissernet compiles a table of borrowings in the scientific work, and also indicates in which university it was defended, who was her supervisor and who opposed her.At the same time, activists emphasize that all their conclusions are “suggestive in nature” because they are based on open sources.
Have there been any cases where someone refused a scientific degree after the publication of "Dissernet»?
In 2013, Alexei Komissarov, who then headed the capital’s department of science, industrial policy and entrepreneurship, sent a statement to the Higher Attestation Commission with a request to deprive him of his candidate of economic sciences degree. Previously, Dissernet stated that its work contained incorrect borrowings, and the official admitted that he “did not formalize the links properly.”
In 2014, the Dissernet community analyzed the doctoral dissertation of Vladimir Platonov, then speaker of the Moscow City Duma. The experts came to the conclusion that 109 out of 412 pages of the dissertation contain incorrect borrowings. Dissernet activists filed an official statement to deprive Mr. Platonov of his academic degree. The consideration of the application was delayed, and in 2015, Mr. Platonov officially renounced his doctorate (while not agreeing with the accusations of plagiarism).
However, much more often those involved in Dissernet investigations deny all accusations, and then the community has to contact the Higher Attestation Commission. The situation is complicated by the fact that after Dissernet began to become active, the government established a 10-year statute of limitations for appealing dissertations.
«
Dissernet“is often accused of being politicized, is this true?
Indeed, Dissernet carried out the campaigns “Let’s check the dissertations of all State Duma deputies,” “all governors,” and so on. But Andrei Zayakin has repeatedly emphasized that the community, along with politicians, checks the dissertations of both doctors and teachers, but few people pay attention to this. “People know about our work through the prism of the media, and journalists select only big names for materials,” Mr. Zayakin complained.
This is what the minister wrote offMedinskyyour dissertation or not?
Only the Higher Attestation Commission can answer this question. But Dissernet activists emphasize that their complaints about the minister’s scientific work are rather of a substantive nature - simply put, they believe that it is blatantly unscientific. Therefore, the request to deprive the head of the Ministry of Culture Vladimir Medinsky is based not on the examination of Dissernet, but on a detailed scientific analysis carried out by doctors of historical sciences Vyacheslav Kozlyakov and Konstantin Yerusalimsky.
Thus, the minister points out in his work that “Orthodox believers had all their church books written in Russian, so it was easy to understand their content,” according to experts, “you don’t need to be a historian to appreciate the almost implausible degree for a humanities scientist ignorance of the author of this phrase." They point out that Vladimir Medinsky “knows nothing about such a phenomenon as the Church Slavonic language.” The applicants point out a number of gross errors in Mr. Medinsky’s dissertation, which “are impossible to imagine even in the course work of a student of the history department.” You can read the full text of the historians’ statement here, and Ivan Babitsky’s retelling here.
Has Dissernet succeeded in depriving someone at the level of a minister of their degree?
For the first time, Dissernet's application to deprive the current minister of his degree was considered this summer - the case concerned possible plagiarism in the candidate's work of the head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, Nikolai Nikiforov. In total, Dissernet found incorrect borrowings on 97 pages out of 239, but the Ministry of Education and Science, on the recommendation of the Higher Attestation Commission, decided to refuse to deprive the community of Mr. Nikiforov’s title.
Is it really that bad with dissertations in Russia?
It depends on what areas of science we are talking about. It is believed that dissertations in the exact and natural sciences can be trusted - a random person is unlikely to defend them. But the humanities have serious problems - the percentage of unscrupulous works in history, economics, philosophy, and sociology is very high. Moreover, we are talking not only about written-off works, but also about frankly unscientific ones. Separately, it is worth highlighting dissertations related to medicine - due to the fact that they are practically obligatory for a doctor who wants to engage in administrative work, there is also a large number of defects here.
Was everything better in Soviet times?
No, this problem also existed. So, in 1975, Sergei Mikhalkov published the play “Foam,” which is about a group of young scientists who wrote dissertations for various bosses for money. Obviously, in those years, without the approval of the country’s leadership, they would not have dared to raise such a sensitive topic. “The theme of this comedy is not new,” critics wrote then. “Today, it is not just anyone who writes exaggerated dissertations for such people; this is long outdated. There is a “scientific community” of young talented professionals. These young talents combine their efforts in order to supply narrow-minded officials with scientific works with a solid, voluminous bibliography, intelligent comments, with introductory and concluding remarks, with a short and efficient abstract - here, as they say, no hackwork. Stupid guys defend smart dissertations, and real authors secretly make a lot of money.” In 1979, the play was even made into a popular film.
However, it is obvious that something has changed since then - now custom dissertations are, in most cases, outright hack work.
Alexander Chernykh, Olga Nikitina
Andrey Zayakin. Photo by Alexey Zharinov
Founder of Dissernet – physicist Andrey Zayakin, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, who worked for many years at European institutions (University of Munich in Germany, University of Perugia in Italy, University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain and others), recently returned to Russia, to the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics: “ I lived for several years for my own pleasure - and this is the main thing that doing science gives a person - and decided that I can now live for others,” – he explains.
In an interview with Pravmir, Andrei Zayakin talks about the concept, principles and results of the work of Dissernet.
– Andrey, tell us how it all started? From which dissertation? At what stage did everything develop into such a global project?
– The ethical motivation for my activities in the broad sense of the word can be considered the phrase of the ap. Pavla:
“And do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but also reprove”(Eph. 5:11).
In Russian, the word “convict” has, in particular, connotations with anger, insults and other very violent and emotional behavior. However, if we make a correct exegesis of what Paul used here elenchete, we will see that the meaning of the verb elencho here it is rather “to bring to light, to find, to discover,” as is easy to understand from the direct association in Art. 5:13 – elenchomena– translated in the Synodal Version as “discovered,” which makes it difficult to correlate with verse 11. That’s exactly what we’re doing—bringing it to light.
On December 27, 2012, I was a guest at the birthday party of a wonderful, respectable lady from an old aristocratic family (her grandfather knew the last Sovereign - he was a professor of law at St. Petersburg University and was invited to the court to teach jurisprudence to the Grand Dukes). The conversation turned to the “Dima Yakovlev Law,” which the Duma voted for on December 21. I found myself thinking that a simple mechanism was absolutely necessary to find out which of the politicians is an honest person and which is a crook. A simple tool that is understandable to everyone who can read and write, has 100% evidence, can be used remotely and with low overhead costs.
All these conditions were satisfied by searching for plagiarism in dissertations. Demonstration of the identity of two texts is accessible to anyone who knows the Cyrillic alphabet and knows how to put its letters into words.
We do not yet plan to work with dissertations in Chinese, just as we are of little interest to other languages. (As an experiment for myself, I once analyzed several Spanish dissertations. I specifically looked for dissertations of Spanish politicians, on the stupidest topics, some leftists. Nothing was found. Therefore, our project remains 100% Cyrillic for now.
The German-speaking world already has its own project “Vroniplag” - thanks to it, several major German politicians have already lost their positions, and in the English-speaking world it is not customary to defend a dissertation if you are not involved in science, so there is no this problem there, and there are no similar projects.)
Our first analysis was absolutely revealing. Deputy of the State Duma Abubakirov Rishat Fazlutdinovich, who copied almost the entire (ENTIRE!) dissertation, from page 20 to page 291 from the works of S.L. Sirot, A.S. Gubchenkova and other people with whom Abubakirov did not have joint books or articles, which could theoretically be a valid reason for textual matches.
There is almost no actual text as such in this work.
The dissertation council at the Russian State University for the Humanities 212.198.07 made a historic decision - our appeal (filed by candidate for Moscow City Duma deputy Vladislav Naganov) was satisfied by a unanimous decision of the Council. What's the secret? And the fact is that in connection with the dissolution of the Dissertation Council, which initially approved this dissertation, our appeal was reviewed by completely different people and a different Council, who were horrified by the scale of the stolen no less than we were, and came to the same conclusions.
But this is not yet a victory. The fact is that the top of the pyramid of the dissertation industry is closed by the Expert Councils of the Higher Attestation Commission as the final authority of appeal. And just look
to understand that no plagiarism would have occurred if not for the members of the Expert Councils, where certification cases are submitted for approval. Namely, our research shows that more than half of the members of the three HAC ECs listed above were directly involved in the work of the dissertation industry. No, they didn't copy it themselves. Now, even if the Disciplinary Council found our complaint to be justified, its decision goes to the Supreme Attestation Commission. The same rhetorical question: what do you think is the likelihood that the perpetrators will admit their mistake?
At the same Russian State University for the Humanities, today we lost appeals on equally plagiarized dissertations http://wiki.dissernet.org/w/KhodyrevSA2010.html and http://www.dissernet.org/expertise/gorokhovayu2012.htm. Why? Because they were considered by the same Council 212.198.01, where they defended themselves. And now - surprise! – on our website alone there are 55 (fifty-five!) works with plagiarism from this advice! And now the second surprise: the chairman of this Council, Valery Vladimirovich Minaev, is a member of the Supreme Attestation Commission. Are you surprised? Me not.
– How to systematically combat plagiarism in higher education?
– I think the first thing to do is to disband the ES of the Higher Attestation Commission and create new expert councils. The new ES of the Higher Attestation Commission should help the Ministry of Education and Science to consistently disperse the dissents in which plagiarism was defended. We already have a historical precedent for the Danilov Council - and from the meeting on Severinko, our representative conveyed to me the wonderful words of the vice-rector of MPGU:
“We are now undergoing self-purification at the university, what is happening will benefit us, this whole story has become a lesson for us, the leadership of the university has changed, the Danilov dissertation council is closed. I myself came with a new team. I thank the commission for the detailed analysis...”
We will be happy to help the Ministry of Education and Science in disbanding the councils. We are currently collecting data on the mass production of fake dissertations in dissertation councils. If the Higher Attestation Commission has its way, we will be happy to provide our analytics to the updated ES. We noticed that, as a rule, fake dissertations have the property of clustering. The same university may have a dozen normal councils and one dissertation factory.
– What surprised you most during this work?
Pages on which no plagiarism was detected are not shaded; pages shaded indicate borrowings from other sources.
Perhaps his answer is due to the fact that he never read his dissertation even after the deception was exposed. It is also surprising that deputy Igoshin advises us: “By the way, almost a year has passed, and no one has initiated such a procedure [deprivation of a degree – A.Z.]” - the deputy, apparently, is not very knowledgeable about the subject of his direct authority - Russian legislation and is not aware of the very statute of limitations established by the order of the Ministry of Education. Or he simply doesn’t know in what year he was awarded his academic degree.
– Is it the same scale in the West?
– In the West, they write off less, but deprive more degrees. This is about the often discussed issue of the total immorality of the West. Those who talk about these topics usually do not know statistics - but we do. Thanks to the activities of the German project “Vroniplag”, 18 people lost their degrees, but they found only 68 plagiarists. Some of them also lost their party and government positions through this. In Russia, only one person lost his degree due to our activities - the head of the Moscow Department of Science, Alexei Komissarov, and he lost it based on his own statement, written in connection with the publication of our examination. This is a courageous, beautiful and Christian act; I would like people not to be embittered because we took their works out of libraries and looked at them under a magnifying glass - but to correct their lives and do something useful in life.
Questions asked by Anna Danilova
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Dissatisfied scientists On Monday, October 23, the club of members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN) “July 1” and the Science Council under the Ministry... Those who voted against Medinsky justified their position Six members of the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission voted to deprive Vladimir Medinsky of his Doctor of Science degree. Among them, the only historians are Sergei Mironenko and Igor Danilevsky. Both historians who are members of the presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) voted against maintaining the doctoral degree of the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky - the scientific director... The Medinsky incident: how the dispute over the dissertation of the Minister of Culture ended ..., October 20, Medinsky’s opponent, an expert in the free online community, told RBC “ Dissernet» philologist Ivan Babitsky. This information was confirmed to RBC by a source close to... a copy of the abstract pages with “real” opponents. Author of "Novaya" and co-founder of " Dissernet» Andrei Zayakin provided RBC and posted it on his page... Medinsky, an evacuation took place, which was explained by a call about a bomb. Co-founder " Dissernet"Andrei Zayakin told RBC that the evacuation to the RSL was carried out "under... How Medinsky’s dissertation got two teams of opponents ... Gasanov, Lavrov and Borisov appear in the abstract, an expert told RBC “ Dissernet» Ivan Babitsky, who back in 2016 submitted an application for... and had them certified by the scientific secretary of the library. They are stored in " Dissernet", he stated. A copy of the second and third pages of this document is... others, then it cannot be considered valid,” he believes. Co-founder " Dissernet"Andrey Zayakin confirms that the regulations on the procedure for awarding academic degrees... The Ministry of Culture named the names of Medinsky’s “real opponents” ... ],” she clarified to RBC. 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The RAS elected 11 vice-presidents with an average age of 64 years ... Boris Porfiryev, who was criticized by a member of the society, was also elected to the presidium Dissernet", physicist Andrei Zayakin for acquittal verdicts for the authors of scientific papers accused... The Khrunichev Center responded to data about the “fake” academic degree of the director ... Brussels, said the co-founder “ Dissernet"Andrey Zayakin in an article published on the Novaya Gazeta website. This organization, as the community found out, “ Dissernet", does not have registration... the dissertation of the head of the Center named after. Khrunichev, as stated in “ Dissernet", is not registered as an educational institution in Belgium. How... Rosneft responded to Sistema’s claims against the author of the examination of the claim ... "Systems". Rosneft official representative Mikhail Leontyev said in a comment to RBC “ Dissernet"a public organization with a political bent, whose conclusions cannot be accepted in... that, it is said with reference to " Dissernet“about “signs of a significant amount of borrowing” in Avdisky’s dissertation. On the site " Dissernet"It is indicated that Avdiysky in 2002 ... A real historian: how BelSU recognized Medinsky’s scientific dissertation ... degree of influence: high-profile dissertation scandals Activist participating in the meeting “ Dissernet"Andrei Zayakin pointed out that the minister's scientific monograph (it is... political science and one on history. In works on political science, the community " Dissernet» found signs of plagiarism. When in April 2016, doctors of historical sciences Vyacheslav Kozlyakov and Konstantin Yerusalimsky and activist “ Dissernet» philologist Ivan Babitsky submitted an application in connection with his dissertation on... 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Dissernet found plagiarism on most pages of Navalny’s verdict Community « Dissernet» checked the verdict of oppositionist Alexei Navalny in the “Kirovles” case. At 56... and 2017, although their performances varied. According to the co-founder " Dissernet“Andrey Zayakin, the identity of the texts on the first 23 pages is “amazing.” On...the same order as in the 2013 verdict. Least borrowing " Dissernet"found in the part where the court evaluates the evidence (pages 44 ... Dissernet suspected the vice-mayor of Novosibirsk of plagiarism ... them in 2008, was blacklisted by the creators of the site “ Dissernet" According to the resource, Zakharov partially borrowed the text of his dissertation from the work... the situation was reported to the RBC Novosibirsk correspondent by the press secretary of the mayor of Novosibirsk Artem Rogovsky. " Dissernet" was founded in 2013. This is a “free online community of experts... MSU postponed meeting on Medinsky's dissertation case ... Medinsky was submitted to the Ministry of Education and Science in April of this year by a community member “ Dissernet» Ivan Babitsky. In his opinion, the minister’s work “has no scientific... Dissernet found borrowings in the dissertation of State Duma deputy Bespalova ... incorrect borrowing from the works of ten scientists, follows from the study “ Dissernet" Incorrect quotation " Dissernet"saw signs of falsification in the dissertation of State Duma deputy Marina Bespalova...) Vitaly Goshulyak, point out in " Dissernet" He was five times the scientific supervisor of applicants for academic degrees, whose scientific works “ Dissernet"calls incorrect because... Dissernet revealed falsifications of materials in magazines published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs ...data from the Disseropedia of Russian Journals. The project was launched on December 13 by community members “ Dissernet”, who look for falsifications in dissertations. The creator of “Disseropedia” Larisa Melikhova spoke... to all three magazines that “ Dissernet" All three publications that experts talk about “ Dissernet", are located at the same address - in the same place... “Dissernet”: Entire dissertation clusters operate in Kuban universities ... by the author of Novaya Gazeta. Co-founder of the project " Dissernet”, which studies candidate and doctoral dissertations defended in Russia. – “ Dissernet“often mentioned in the media in connection with... state regulation of regional agricultural economics (based on materials from the Krasnodar Territory).” According to the examination " Dissernet Politics, 25 Nov 2016, 14:19 The Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission deprived Moscow City Duma deputy Smetanov of his scientific degree ... State Institute of Radio Engineering, Electronics and Automation. In the summer of 2014, experts “ Dissernet» published a set of violations found in Smetanov’s dissertation. Experts have discovered verbatim... Medinsky, in response to criticism of his dissertation, recalled the interests of Russia ... to evaluate the events taking place in Russia?” Previously on the Internet community website " Dissernet» a material signed by Doctor of Historical Sciences Vyacheslav Kozlyakov appeared. Its author... Soviet historical science was called “criticism of bourgeois historiography.” In conclusion, the author “ Dissernet Technologies and media, 07 July 2016, 12:56 The Higher Attestation Commission refused to deprive the head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of his academic degree ... an academic degree from the head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov, about whose dissertation he complained “ Dissernet" Previously, the dissertation committee recommended not to deprive him of his degree. Expert council... degree from the head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov, in whose dissertation the network community " Dissernet" found overlaps with other scientific works. About this on Twitter... The dissertation council refused to deprive the head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of his academic degree ... experts from the network community previously contacted the Certification Commission (VAC) under the Ministry of Education and Science " Dissernet”, who accused the head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of plagiarism when writing his dissertation. Dissertation...). The most massive borrowing without proper registration of references is the minister, according to “ Dissernet", made from the dissertation of Alexander Sosnovsky "Innovative model of information flow management...