VAK for scientists? Or a Higher Attestation Commission for ... Paper Morak?

In connection with a wide discussion of the topic of dissertations and the “dissertation plagiarism” we publish an article by Vasily Leonov , Kand. tech. sciences, associate professor, editor of the biometric website ( www.biometrica.tomsk.ru ). Some of his theses seem controversial to the editors, however, in our opinion, they can become the subject of discussion, which is very important in this situation.

The plagiarism found in the dissertations is the “foam” of the dissertation business, since in the production of dissertations “on order” it is much easier to simply copy fragments of one dissertation, inserting them into the next custom dissertations. Manufacturers of such a “product” fabricate not only dissertations, but also a lot of magazine articles. The main reasons for the appearance of this business were described by Professor E.V. Balatsky back in 2005 [1, 2], setting out the scenarios of its liquidation. One of the key reasons for the birth of this business is changes in the provisions of the Higher Attestation Commission.

New is a well -forgotten old

The term "dissertation" originating from the Latin Dissertatio - discussion, research, in Russia for the first time in the works of M.V. Lomonosov. The first dissertations appeared at Moscow University in 1755. Their authors were university teachers. On January 4, 1864, the “Regulation on academic degrees” was adopted, in which the practice of preliminary publication of dissertations was introduced. The circulation of the dissertation was supposed to be at least 300 copies that were sent to the university libraries of Russia. The same requirements were also on dissertations in medicine. The annual “A series of doctoral dissertations allowed for defense in the Imperial Military Medical Academy” was published in 400 copies of full volume and 300 copies of “Brief resume” (authorized resumes). They were also sent to the university libraries of Russia. The author of these lines happened to work with many dissertations of this series in the scientific library of Tomsk State University. Thus, for 200 years of the dissertation in Russia have been qualification works of scientific and pedagogical workers, which is quite logical and explainable, since without science a university teacher cannot maintain his own educational level.

Now let's turn to the present. In 1999, the newspaper Search opened a discussion of the new version of the “Regulation ...” VAK [3]. In it, we proposed introducing a mandatory preliminary publication of electronic versions of dissertations on the Internet. However, the Higher Attestation Commission ignored this proposal. Recall that the Higher Attestation Commission at that time did not even have its own site, which appeared only after 5 years. Since then, our proposal has been repeatedly announced, for example, D.A. Medvedev in 2007, 2010 and 2013, as well as other leaders. During this time, along with the “dissertation on order” market, the market for sales of electronic versions of dissertations developed rapidly, which explains the reasons why this proposal has not been implemented.

Seekers and ... applicants

In the “Regulation on the Procedure for the Assistance of Scientific Seeps” dated 01.30.2002 we read: “This Regulation determines the legal basis for assessing the qualifications of scientific and scientific-pedagogical workers and the criteria that the dissertations-scientific and qualification work should meet.” The turnover of " scientific and scientific and pedagogical " we are found in this version 5 times. However, in the “Regulation ...” dated 06/20/2011 this item is given already in a different version: “This provision establishes the requirements for the qualifications of applicants for scientific degrees and the criteria that the dissertations should meet-scientific and qualification work.” That is, the document regulated that scientific degrees can (and should?) Is assigned not only to scientific and scientific and pedagogical workers , but to any applicant, for example, the governor, deputy of the State Duma, the official of the city hall, etc. Present, for example, an official N.I. Boombum dissertation on the topic “Influence of the phase of the moon and the number of solar spots on the growth rate of telegraphic pillars”, and please “soak” the scientific degree (where it costs cheaper).

VAK and non-commissioned officer widow

After the introduction of the "List of leading periodicals", the magazine market also received development. There were a lot of magazines that on a paid basis began to accept very dubious publications, also receiving additional income from the publication of different advertising. And here for the Higher Attestation Commission is a considerable fraction of guilt. For example, after one of our reviews on pseudo -scientific publications of a number of medical journals and universities, the Society of Evidence Medicine applied to the Higher Attestation Commission with a proposal to exclude these magazines from the list. However, the Higher Attestation Commission did not even answer the letter of the OSDM. This reaction was predicted in advance by the private owner of these magazines, writing in his letter: "Do you think that the Higher Attestation Commission will carry itself like a non-commissioned officer widow?" I ignored the similar appeal and E.K. Nechaeva is the director of the Department of Scientific and Scientific and Pedagogical Personnel of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. All this suggests personal interest, and possibly personal participation in this business of many of those on whom the level of requirements for dissertations and scientific publications depends.

Why do we need academic degrees?

Before changing the current procedure for awarding scientific degrees, it is necessary to answer the question: why and who needs scientific degrees? Previously, scientific degrees were awarded only to scientific and scientific and pedagogical workers. The aim of this was to increase the level of scientific research and the level of education - to increase the level of economics, health care, the life of the population, the defense capacity and security of the state. L. Paster wrote: " ... of all the peoples, the first will always be the one who will ahead of others in the field of thought and mental activity ." But as the founder of the Central Economic and Mathematics Institute of the USSR Academician N.P. Fedorenko: " Strong science and a weak state are also not compatible as a weak science and a strong state ." Confirmation of this can be found by comparing the number of Nobel Prize winners in different states. “Russia accounts for less than 0.5%of the market for high-capacity products, and the share in the world export of innovative products is 3-5%, while the import of high-tech products is 46%. For comparison: the share of innovative products in the export of the United States is 43.1%, Germany - 59.6, Finland - 63.5, Japan - 57.8%. In developed countries, the share of the innovative factor in GDP gains from 40 to 85 %, in Russia-only 8-12 %”[4]. Since science is the foundation of civilization, its destruction inevitably leads to the death of civilization, including within a separate state.

Applicants, who is this?

“... If we take the year 1993, by 2007, the total number of dissertations increased 3 times, both candidate and doctorals, and at the same time, for example, in political sciences-10 times, in economics-5 times, according to sociology, 6 and so on, and the number of protection for natural, technical sciences remained at the same level. 40% of candidate dissertations are defended without training in graduate school, through applications, and this is again the most common among economists, teachers, lawyers and so on. ... it is worried that often even honestly written dissertations do not carry real scientific novelty -the text is original, and there is no scientific novelty ”[5] This statement of the head of the Ministry of Education and Science confirms the main conclusion that plagiarism is only the“ top of the iceberg ”[6], while the main problem of the“ dissertation crisis ”is the absence of a scientific component in many dissertations. Стенограмма этого совещания [5] размещена на сайте Правительства РФ с заголовком «Совещание о совершенствовании системы подготовки и аттестации научных и научно-педагогических работников», из чего следует, что Правительство РФ, члены которого участвовали в этом совещании, считает научными и научно-педагогическими работниками не только тех, кто работает в НИИ или в вузах, но также и своих коллег, чиновников, civil servants, etc. However, are those very officials in reality whose dissertations today they say and write so much, “scientific and scientific-pedagogical” workers? I believe that the answer is obvious: they are not them. And they are the very co-exchanges, for whom the corresponding amendment was made to the "Regulation ...". It is such applicants that are pseudo -scientists who rivet or buy disseers, and do not make science. For officials, this is to show that they are “smart officials” and their activities are based on a scientific approach. And such an image will help them make their career faster. The second motive for the growth of job noise is nothing more than a way to raise the level of their meager salary for those who work in universities. Having worked for many years in one of the universities, in the title of which there are only adjectives of the universal, interplanetary, intergalactic, etc., I myself saw how, tired of the beggarly salary, many teachers just became applicants. In their dissertations, someone had more science, someone had less. But almost everyone had work on dissertations contributed to an increase in the educational level. True, some of the teachers choose a different way to increase their earnings - writing dissertations “On order”.

Who makes science in Russia?

Why is it so important to narrow the contingent of representing dissertations only to scientific and scientific and pedagogical workers? This will increase the concentration of scientists in those structures that are engaged in science and education. And an increase in concentration, as you know, is a condition for crystallization of the product in a new, more advanced phase. Science in Russia is engaged in the Academy of Sciences (RAS, RAMS, etc.), industry research institutes and universities. Many of them are not directly subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Science. In the USSR, the Higher Attestation Commission for quite some time (about 20 years) was not subordinate to the Ministry of Education, but directly to the Council of Ministers of the USSR. At the same time, the “Regulations on the procedure for the award of scientific degrees and the assignment of scientific titles” were developed by the Higher Attestation Commission together with the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on Science and Technology, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR. In 1998, the Higher Attestation Commission was subordinated to the Ministry of Education. Such a decrease in the status of the Higher Attestation Commission reflected the attitude of the leadership of that time to science.

What to do?

The problem of the "dissertation crisis" cannot be solved in two or three changes in existing documents. To develop productive solutions, it is necessary to remember that the Higher Attestation Commission is a public organization, which has more than once reminded the chairman of the Higher Attestation Commission V.M. Filippov. Therefore, the whole society should be involved in the discussion of this problem by opening a forum on the VAK forum for this, on which the scientific and pedagogical community will express its opinion on solving this problem. This step will be the first evidence that the Government of the Russian Federation really wants to listen to the opinion of society, and not engage in a “undercover struggle”.

What can be offered now to improve the situation?

1. Change the status of the Higher Attestation Commission, subordinating it directly to the chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.

2. Having abolished the “List of leading periodicals”, to create a set of 22 electronic journals of a particular orientation on the VAK website, starting with “Architecture” and ending with “Legal Sciences”, registering them in the NTC “Inform Register”. In them, publish all the articles of the dissertations listed by them in the dissertations, providing free access to them. Along with the publication of complete texts of dissertations and their discussion at the VAK forum, this will create the conditions for an objective assessment of dissertations by the entire scientific community.

3. Do not establish any statute of limitations for the quality of the quality of dissertations.

4. Change the current legislation, prohibiting the business “dissertation to order” and the trade in electronic dissertations, providing free access to electronic versions of previously protected dissertations.

1. Balatsky E.V. The dissertation trap. Free Thought-XXI, 2005, No. 2.
2. Balatsky E.V. The formation of a "dissertation trap." Free thought-XXI. -2005. -No. 11.
3. Leonov V.P., Ribrova O. Yu., Izhevsky P.V., Solntsev V.N., Dromashko S.E., Poltavets V.I. In the new age - with evidence -based medicine. Search, No. 20, May 21, 1999.
4. Elfimova O.S. Science, education and security in the vector of movement to the knowledge society. Theory and practice of social development. 2012. No. 12.
5. Livanov D.A. A meeting on improving the system of preparation and certification of scientific and scientific and pedagogical workers. http: // Government.rf/docs/23537
6. Bazhanov V.A. Plagiarg is just the tip of the iceberg. TRV-hunger, February 26, 2013, No. 123, p. 4.