Sadly, some academics in this country are reluctant to talk about this issue because it concerns themselves and their careers. This issue seems taboo to discuss.
By
AHMAD NAJIB BURHANI, Research Professor at the National Research Institute and Innovation Agency (BRIN)
·6 minutes read
Since the arrest of the University of Lampung (Unila) Chancellor Karomani by the Eradication Corruption Commission (KPK) on Aug. 20 for bribery in the jalur mandiri (independently-managed) student admissions selection program, several articles shedding light on academic morality have been published by Kompas. One of them was "Profesor Doktor Koruptor" (professor doctor and corruptor) (26/8/2022). Universities that should become “a moral and ethical guardian and corruption-free institution”, as Nizam, the director general of research and technology for higher education (Diktiristek), has appealed in his statement, has turned out to be no different from other institutions, or appeared to be a place for the germinating seeds of corruption.
How do corrupt practices come about? In his article "Krisis Etika Ilmiah dan Benih Korupsi di Perguruan Tinggi” (a crisis of scientific ethics and seeds of corruption in higher education) (Kompas.id, 1/9/2022), Bambang Purwanto says that "unnatural practices in scientific research and paper publications" are the beginning and seeds of the generation of corruption, either in campus management or post-college work institutions.
Sadly, some academics in this country are reluctant to talk about this issue because it concerns themselves and their careers. This issue seems taboo to discuss.
Violations of academic morality in various educational and research institutions in this country are massive and systemic.
The issue of questioning the morality of scientific publications should become a concern not only for our current educational products but also the nation's future. Violations of academic morality in various educational and research institutions in this country are massive and systemic.
The violation of academic morality in scientific publications in particular has become increasingly widespread starting in the 2010s when academics, especially lecturers and researchers, were demanded to publish their scientific works in international journals. Our academic community has since begun to become more familiar with global indexation platforms of peer-reviewed publications, such as Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). Passion for academic research and global challenges in scientific works gained momentum in the 2000s when many of our scientists began to become lecturers or researchers abroad with their fairly substantial publications of international journals and books.
Before the 2000s, national scale academic journals were limited. Among them were Studia Islamika, Prisma and Ulumul Qur'an. Given their orientation at the time, our scientific works were mostly nationally published in the form of books in Indonesian narration. Our academic community did not bother much about competing scientifically globally to challenge scientists from other countries.
The promotional impetus for international publications came in the 2010s when we realized that we had fallen far behind neighboring countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia (Wiryawan 2014) and that one of the determinants of global university rankings was the number of international publications. This
prompted the Education and Culture Ministry, government research institutions and universities to adopt the international educational policy. Professorship, hierarchical academic promotion and a doctoral degree have since been required on scientific works for international publications.
Deplorably, we have been exposed to the negative excesses of the policy these days. Some have appeared to opt for shortcuts through covered plagiarism. Others have wittingly turned to predatory journals. The high demand for international publications has been exploited by predatory journals as an opportunity to serve as an outlet for those who are unable to deservedly enter credible international journals.
Beall's List of Potential Predatory Journals and Publishers makes a long list of international journals and publishers with indications of being predatory. One of them is David Publishing. Meanwhile, including in the category of “vanity press”, or "international" publishers that do not commit quality control nor peer-review and therefore should be avoided, are IGI Global, Lambert Academic Publishing, VDM Verlag Dr Muller and Scholars' Press.
It has become a serious concern and topic of scrutiny in several campuses because the widespread phenomenon is a threat to the academic world. Uli Kozok from the University of Hawaii at Manoa wrote about the issue in “Predatory Publishing: A Case Story” (2017). The University of Pittsburgh Library provides directives to identify predatory journals on “Illegitimate & Predatory Publishing: Case Study.” Peer-reviewed journal Scientometrics (Springer) has published an article entitled "Predatory Publishing in Scopus: Evidence on Cross-Country Differences'' (2021). Zulfan Tadjoeddin has also written an interesting article titled “Jurnal Internasional Asal-asalan dan Nono Lee Affair” (perfunctory international journal and the Nono Lee affair" (2012).
The currently most talked-about examples are the journals published by the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). Beall's List includes MDPI in a separate discussion.
In addition to journals that have very strong indications as predatory or scam journals, there are also publishers and journals that operate in a "gray" area. The currently most talked-about examples are the journals published by the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). Beall's List includes MDPI in a separate discussion.
The most highlighted review on the MDPI was presented by Paolo Crosetto on “Is MDPI a Predatory Publisher?” (2021). Crosetto concluded that the method used by the MDPI was more appropriately referred to as being "aggressive rent extracting" behavior (aggressively demanding the authors to pay a rental fee of publications) rather than a predator. However, Crosetto added that given its current method and growth rate, the MDPI was likely to gradually turn into a predatory publisher.
Credibility being questioned in relation to these international publications, some among domestic educational circles have opted for apathy and requested the requirement for internationally published scientific works be removed altogether. Of course, this would be a step backward because the purpose in pushing for international publications is for this nation to be able to contribute to world academic discourse. We don’t want to sit back and let ourselves be newspersons or informants. We don’t want ourselves to be merely objects and never the actors of study, even for the issues related to us.
Another reason behind the demand for international publications is that the works of Indonesian scientists can be reviewed by peer scientists in their fields, tested for their methods and novelty and scrutinized for authenticity and scientific contributions. In the case of ending up in predatory journals or publishers, we will miss our academic goal. Instead of getting a thorough peer-review, the author may have spent a lot of money only to fail in gaining scientific works. In this case, we are deviating from the policy over international publications.
AHMAD NAJIB BURHANI, Research Professor at the National Research Institute and Innovation Agency (BRIN)