Plagiarism of Scientific Publications, Academic Integrity in Higher Education Needs to be Evaluated

Commitment to academic integrity is still a problem in higher education, both by individuals and institutions.

KOMPAS/ESTER LINCE NAPITUPULU

The atmosphere of a panel discussion with academics at the Editage Indonesia Research Summit event in Jakarta, Thursday (29/2/2024). The discussion was titled "Improving the Impact of University Research on the Global Stage".

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Academic integrity in tertiary institutions, both individually and institutionally, requires serious attention. Evaluation of Tri Dharma lecturers' activities is needed to avoid repeated violations of academic integrity, especially regarding plagiarism publications scientific.

Cases of alleged plagiarism in scientific publications, identity theft, and publishing in predatory scientific journals involving Indonesian university professors continue to occur until Thursday (April 18, 2024). The Directorate General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology team under the Ministry of Education and Culture is currently forming a team to investigate allegations of name theft or plagiarism involving one of the professors at National University (Unas), Kumba Digdowiseiso, who is also the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) at Unas.

Based on the article on the https://retractionwatch.com page entitled The dean who came to visit and added dozens of authors without their knowledge, it was stated that a number of lecturers at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu took issue with their names appearing on besides unknown author: Kumba Digdowiseiso, Dean of FEB Unas. Kumba has indeed visited one of the universities in Malaysia to pioneer international cooperation.

This was revealed by Google Scholar. However, the professors claimed that they had never collaborated on any writing. It is suspected that the scientific publications were issued in fraudulent or predatory journals. In 2024 alone, there were 160 in the Google Scholar profile of the said professor.

In January, an issue also arose regarding the efforts to obtain B accreditation for the communication studies program at the Faculty of Social Sciences, State Islamic University of North Sumatra, suspected of falsifying dozens of scientific papers. It was reported that several names listed in the scientific papers were called by the Medan City Police. The researchers involved in the study were not aware of any published scientific papers with titles as listed in the documents, including the matter of providing funding of around Rp 21 million for each study.

When confirmed at the end of January, UIN Sumut's spokesperson, Yuni Salma, said that the leadership was studying the issue and gathering information. "Please excuse us as we are not yet able to provide detailed information," said Yuni.

Also read: There is a Jockey's Role Behind Lecturers' Scientific Work

Form a team

Prior to the 2024 Eid al-Fitr Halal Bi Halal event in the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology (Diktiristek) environment at the Ministry of Education and Culture Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek), Director General of Diktiristek Abdul Haris said that they need to be cautious in responding to cases of alleged plagiarism involving lecturers, including the latest one involving a Unas professor.

"If in 105 days of 2024 there have been 160 publications, that would be amazing. To have two publications in one day seems unreasonable. We still don't know how the process could work like that, and this case is still under investigation. There is a team under the Directorate of Resources, Diktiristek, who will investigate further," he said.

Academic integrity in higher education, both individual and institutional, is one of the things that must be taken seriously. Evaluation needs to be conducted, both individually and institutionally.

Also read: Examples of Higher Education Integrity Still Low

KOMPAS/ESTER LINCE NAPITUPULU

Director General of Higher Education, Research and Technology, Ministry of Education and Culture, Abdul Haris (third from left).

Haris explained that there are approximately 22,000 scientific journals with various classifications in Indonesia. Scientific journals for the publication of lecturers and scientists' scientific publications will be evaluated to clearly determine which ones meet the requirements to be continued and even elevated to national and international levels in order to maintain the quality of scientific publications.

"Implementation of academic integrity can be done by evaluating or reviewing the scientific activities of lecturers. "This needs to be done to avoid fraud incidents occurring again in the future," said Haris.

Evaluation is also carried out by changing the thinking paradigm to not just pursue quantity. Because quality is also important.

If in 105 days in 2024, there are already 160 publications, that would be excellent. Two publications in a day would seem unrealistic.

Separately, the Director of Research, Technology, and Community Service at the Ministry of Research and Technology, Faiz Syuaib, stated that the three pillars of higher education, which are education, research, and community service, are interconnected and cannot stand alone. In carrying out these pillars, especially research, personal integrity and systems are crucial.

Good research technology or innovation, said Faiz, comes from good research processes and governance. The person doing the research must have a research reputation in their field. “Don't just be good at making proposals, you get research opportunities. But what is relevant to the scientific field. "Because of that, track record-based research is built with a good database," said Faiz.

Faiz said that his team is currently compiling a profile database for researchers and industries. With the existence of a database and a system, there is a mechanism for exploring the profiles of researchers and universities, so that they have a specific track record of research excellence compared to others.

Focus on quality

The Director of Research and Development of the University of Indonesia (UI), Munawar Khalil, stated that UI's research, which initially focused on quantity, has shifted towards quality. This has been achieved by employing various strategies in research transformation.

"We hope that by 2024, UI's publication in Q1 journals can be above 50 percent. As stated in the Long-Term Development Plan (RPJP), UI's target in 2025 is to become one of the top 5 universities in ASEAN. Meanwhile, research publications in Q1 at the current top 5 universities in ASEAN are already above 70 percent," stated Khalil.

In the past, UI encouraged researchers to publish their research results in any journal to increase the number of articles and grow the culture of writing among researchers. However, since the 2020s, UI's focus is no longer on quantity but quality, so that the conducted research can be published in the best journals in the world.

Meanwhile, Binus University's Vice Rector for Research and Technology Transfer, Juneman Abraham, added that important performance indicators are used as a guideline. On campus, there are targets for the number of publications, patents, citations, and intellectual property rights.

"If those indicators become the goal, then the culture of research and scientific culture will not be developed. The important thing is how science is used for the welfare of society and not forgotten in pursuit of numbers filled with publication manipulation," he said.

Also read: Scientific Publications Must Develop Science and Technology and Development

KOMPAS/ESTER LINCE NAPITUPULU

Indonesian university lecturers and professors receive support to increase scientific publications in reputable international journals through the World Class Professor (WCP) program. Several participants of the 2018 WCP shared their experiences in collaborating on publications with world-class professors from both domestic and foreign universities during the annual WCP 2018 seminar in Jakarta on Thursday (15/11/2018).

Juneman proposes that universities are willing to formulate indicators that more accurately reflect complexity, not just the number of patents or publications. Because, science that contributes to society makes it stronger and more tested.

"We must be able to build a research culture creatively and dialogically. We want the research results to be popular and enjoyed by the general public. Publication is not a one-time job, but requires dialogue. "Because of that, there needs to be open science or open science to dialogue with papers or publications that have been published, for example," said Juneman.