Science should be scientific
The Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Countering Falsifications found pseudoscientific publications and plagiarism among candidates for academics
The Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Countering Falsifications found pseudoscientific publications and plagiarism in dissertations of the candidates for Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This is stated in the corresponding report, Andrei Zayakin, a member of the commission, co-founder of the Dissernet community, told the Echo of Moscow radio station. The text of the report is published on the commission's website.
Among the main violations identified by experts are plagiarism in dissertations, fabrication of statistical and experimental data, participation in the defense of a thesis with plagiarism as a supervisor, dissemination of pseudoscientific ideas, presentation of unscientific concepts under the guise of scientific.
In total, the RAS Commission identified 56 candidates applying for the title of corresponding member of the RAS, convicted of violating academic ethics. Thus, two candidates were found to have unoriginal dissertations, three found signs of violations in scientific publications, experts found a pseudoscientific dissertation in one candidate, the RAS commission found pseudoscientific publications in journals in another scientist, writes Znak.com . And 11 scientists were convicted of accompanying unoriginal dissertations as a supervisor or opponent.
For example, two dissertations by Inessa Minenko, professor at the Sechenov First Medical State University – "Complex non–drug correction of post-traumatic stress disorders" and "Non-drug treatment of the effects of stress of various genesis" - were recognized as pseudoscientific in accordance with the memorandum of the RAS Commission "On the pseudoscience of homeopathy". In the description of Minenko, the members of the RAS commission write that she is a "practicing homeopath" and "extracts income from the provision of pseudoscientific services."
Also among the applicants for the title of corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences is a Russian scientist, Doctor of Biological Sciences, photographer, member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia Sergey Saveliev, whose publications are recognized as pseudoscientific. For example, earlier in an interview with Kommersant, Professor Saveliev stated that "women should not be forced to do mathematics," because "they are not capable of it in principle." According to Savelyev, it is "sad" that "women are toys in the hands of their hormonal background." "Their brains, including the frontal areas, in most cases are aimed at solving a reproductive problem. Everything proceeds from this: for them, the main task is reproductive, not creative," the doctor of biological Sciences is sure.
Just 10-15 years ago, women "didn't really like tapping their fingers on the keyboard – the nails are long, break off, no one wanted to learn to type on it like on a typewriter – it didn't arouse the slightest interest in women," the scientist reasoned. "But as soon as these things began to be connected in the form of a communicator with a man who could potentially be used for reproductive pleasures, that is, it would be possible to make a descendant and make him take care of them, women mastered the computer instantly," says Saveliev, who at the time of the publication of the interview held the position of head of the laboratory for the Development of the nervous System of the Research Institute of Human Morphology RAN.
According to him, "humanity is getting dumber", as "the brain is shrinking" with the change of generations.
Sergey Saveliev also expressed the idea that the clone of Dolly the sheep was a fake. According to the biologist, "cloning is a lie from beginning to end."
In October 2018, Professor Saveliev gave comments to the radio station "Moscow Speaks" about the massacre at the college in Kerch. Sergey Saveliev diagnosed the "Kerch shooter" Vladislav Roslyakov with schizophrenia, based on the fact that he had previously been diagnosed with autism. Subsequently, the then editor-in-chief of the radio station "Says Moscow" Sergey Dorenko deleted the scientist's comment from the radio station's website and apologized to readers.
By the way, another professor, Vladimir Putin's classmate at university, and now the head of the RF IC, General of Justice Alexander Bastrykin, also dug into the causes of the "Kerch massacre". He also came to an unexpected conclusion – Roslyakov was taking revenge for the harassment caused by fake American jeans.
The elections to the RAS will be held in November. It is expected that 76 vacancies of academicians and 171 vacancies of corresponding members will be filled. The voting takes place in one round – for approval, the candidate needs to receive at least two–thirds of the votes from the academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences participating in the voting, and at least half - from the list of academicians, reports RBC.
According to Andrey Zayakin, after publication, the report will be read in the expert commissions of the branches of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which will meet in the coming week and will prepare recommendations on who should be supported or not supported in the elections to the Academy. "According to our conclusions, persons involved in pseudoscience should not work at all at universities or institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, persons involved in plagiarism – similarly. People who, by mistake, may have become the heads of unscrupulous dissertations have a procedure for "cleansing their reputation," explained the co–founder of Dissernet.
The Commission recommends that the branches of the Russian Academy of Sciences, when considering candidates, be guided by the policy of "zero tolerance for plagiarism".
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