NOTE: The letter was sent on Friday, July 15, both to the rectors of the largest universities in Romania and to the Minister of Education, but so far the only rector who has responded and expressed his support is Daniel David (University of Babes-Boilai). And this is in the conditions when the Ministry of Education submitted for public discussion the draft amendments to the Laws on pre-university and university education. And silence is the answer.

Plagiarism among Romanians: concerns and suggestions

An open letter to Romanian universities and the Ministry of Education

As professors and researchers at universities and specialized institutes in North America and Western Europe, together with our colleagues in Romania, we have observed with the greatest concern and growing dismay the aggressive intervention of politics in academic ethics through the recent legal protection of plagiarism and plagiarists, as well as the notable with exceptions, the lack of reaction from those directly affected – the Ministry of Education and Romanian universities. This phenomenon is dangerous because it affects the entire educational system and certainly the entire Romanian society.

In the short term, the primary victims are honest Romanian scientists who try to publish their works in academic journals and internationally recognized scientific publishing houses. Recently, Romania has acquired a rather flattering reputation in the West as a country where plagiarism is protected by the state, so their research is almost automatically perceived as suspect. It is unfair to those directly affected and unfair to society as a whole.

If this phenomenon is not completely ignored, public attention is focused almost exclusively on cases of plagiarism by famous people and public officials – prime ministers, ministers, magistrates, etc. – and only on doctoral theses. This trend is partly understandable, but it also means that other cases of plagiarism by lesser-known names, many of which come from universities, are being overlooked. Obvious cases of plagiarism in academic journals, books or book chapters are also ignored, although they are as scandalous as those in doctoral theses.

To clean up this ethical quagmire, we believe that a comprehensive approach is needed that includes: preventively and one repairwith solutions that can be implemented on short termand with structural changes on long lasting. Below we offer just a few suggestions and examples to get that much-needed conversation started.

Hi approach preventively easy to implement short term this could mean that all Romanian universities encourage and apparently help their PhD students to be co-supervised by PhD supervisors from foreign universities, as some universities have already started to do, albeit rather sporadically. Apart from the fact that PhD students will benefit from a new level of expertise, supervised PhD work will encourage good research work and a better quality dissertation. Long-lastinguniversities that will systematically implement this strategy will only benefit from a good reputation both nationally and internationally.

Regarding the approach repairwhich provides for punishment in one way or another for already proven cases of plagiarism, the decision on short term could just imagine it public reaction Romanian universities in all cases of flagrant rejection of the standards of university ethics. Even if currently Romanian universities cannot abolish plagiarism protected by law (!), they can still punish all cases of plagiarism from scientific journals, books or sections of books, refusal or cancellation of publication of plagiarism, up to the termination of the employment contract. those who were caught red-handed. This is the social attitude towards zero tolerance coming from multiple universities would send a strong message with a reverberation that would extend beyond the university sphere. For example, New Europe College or Bucharest University Press have already recognized cases of plagiarism in works published under their auspices and immediately removed them, publicly announcing the reason. For scientific journals and publishing houses in Romania, this attitude can only increase their prestige and, implicitly, in the long run, the quality of published work. Read the full article and comment on Contributors.ro