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The conservatives of Seimas Mantas Adomėnas and Gabrielius Landsbergis proposed a few years ago to amend the Code of Administrative Offenses and to establish sanctions for services when it is proposed to prepare a research paper or part of it.
“Modern technologies have especially facilitated the availability, acquisition, and dissemination of information, therefore, it is necessary to establish administrative responsibility for the preparation, presentation, and publication of information that promotes violations of ethics or academic procedures,” explained the members. of Seimas in the explanatory memorandum.
The possibility of imposing a warning, fines is foreseen
The amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses were approved by Parliament in May last year and provided for the possibility of imposing a warning, a fine of € 100-200 for individuals or a fine of € 300-600 for legal persons for publishing information. that offers research services or preparation of study projects.
Photo from 123RF.com/Learning
A year after the amendments went into effect, it is still easy to find people on the Internet who offer to write a research paper “professionally.” Some sites post on the covers just to help write such papers, but when you dig deeper you can see that your employees can “individually select” the job literature, perform their analysis, necessary research, calculations, and then “build the final text.”
There are no names on these sites: you do not understand who owns them, who created them or who specifically writes these research papers. They also do not contain personal phone numbers, addresses, where the services are provided or who provides them, perhaps from what company or not. Here you can only fill out the form where you need to provide personal and contact details and research job applications.
Similar to pages like Skelbiu.lt Arkansas Speros.lt It is also possible to find jobs in the nature of individual ads, where residents offer to prepare certain topics. The ads don’t have names either, but in some places a phone number can be found and an IP address can be traced.
The Office of the Ombudsman for Ethics and Academic Procedures has the right to initiate investigations, develop protocols for administrative offenses, and respond to such announcements. 15 minutes he wondered how she was doing.
A study was launched.
Kristina Pažusytė, senior adviser to the service, noted that as of May 2019, a study was started on the proposal to prepare a research document.
Why only one?
The Office, according to the Chief Counsel, initiates investigations upon receipt of a report, deed, or other document where there are indications of misconduct. The service may also initiate the investigation on its own initiative, but K.Pažusytė made it clear that resources are lacking for this.
“Office officials have the right to open an investigation on their own initiative, but the effectiveness of the investigation depends on the availability of information, data (Registry of Administrative Offenses) and human resources,” he added. technical problems.
K.Pažusytė noted that the Office of the Ombudsman for Ethics and Academic Procedures operates in the field related to the activities of research and study institutions, and people who offer to prepare research documents and who are threatened with administrative liability They may not belong to the academic community. As a result, he said, it would be appropriate for the service to cooperate with the police.
Ask the ministry to take pressure
In evaluating the results for the period of the year, the initiator of the corrections M.Adomėnas assured that the new procedure provided in the Code of Administrative Offenses clearly does not apply in reality. Otherwise, it believes, it requires the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports to be more proactive and to put pressure on the Office of the Ombudsman for academic ethics and procedures.
“It should be in the Minister’s interest to avoid plagiarism. This is one of the things that significantly undermines confidence in both our educational system and our assessments, the quality of the science that is being developed, if it is possible to buy scientific papers,” said the politician.
The Office’s arguments in explaining why only one study on research paper preparation did not appear convincing.
Photo of Vidmantas Balkūnas / 15min / Mantas Adomėnas
“Resources are usually an excuse when there is no will or desire. A year ago, it seemed to us that the adoption and tightening of that law was already a clear enough signal that it needed to be addressed, but clearly the ministry in need needed more pressure. Only in this way, it is probably possible to get the controller to start doing something, “said M. Domėnas.
Entrust March to higher education institutions.
When asked who could help prevent attempts to sell and buy research papers, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports has given the responsibility for this to higher education institutions.
“The problem of unfair writing is mainly academic, so the best real way to combat it is in the hands of higher education institutions.
Teachers can certainly identify cases of academic dishonesty and prevent them.
Institutions of higher education that address issues of academic integrity still successfully address academic dishonesty. Teachers who work with the student during the preparation of the final thesis can undoubtedly identify cases of academic dishonesty and prevent them. ” 15 minutes taught by the ministry.
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