The alleged misconduct of two university lecturers for using "ghostwritten" research papers for boosting their academic profiles and getting financial reimbursement is casting doubt on the image of higher education institutions.
Not only the two universities under accusation, but also the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (Mhesi) must swiftly and fairly look into the accusations and rectify problems.
A lecturer at Chiang Mai University and a lecturer at Chulaborn Royal Academy are at the centre of the allegations.
They are suspected of paying to have their names appear as authors in papers written by others.
These ghostwritten papers would be published in journals, mostly open-access ones. It hit the news when some found that the lecturers had a large number of papers published just in a short period.
The prolific profiles of both lecturers look dubious because their academic papers cover too many fields even outside their areas of expertise ranging from agriculture, cryptocurrency, economics, engineering, nano-material science, biology, chemistry, to Islamic ethics in Indonesia and education in Russia.
According to the Scopus database, the largest database of peer-reviewed literature, the lecturers had very few papers published papers during 2019-2020. Surprisingly, their published papers increased significantly in 2021 and jumped to 72 each and 95 papers each respectively in 2022 with more than 1,000 citations each.
Each has an H-index more than 20, higher than many reputable and respected academic professors.
The H-index is a metric that is used to measure the productivity and impact of a researcher's publications. The H-index is defined as the number of papers that a researcher has published and the number of citations.
With such a remarkable number of papers and citations, the lecturers could easily apply for academic positions such as assistant professor, associate professor or even professor and gain the related benefits. The figures are amazing for academics, more so given that one of the lecturers is still a PhD student.
Weerachai Phutdhawong, an associate professor in chemistry at Kasetsart University, said on Facebook that the lecturer at Chiang Mai University paid 30,000 baht to have his name on an academic paper on the subject of nano-material science published.
The lecturer used the paper to claim financial reimbursement from the state-run university at four times the cost, he said.
If it's true, imagine how much money the university had to pay for such a large number of papers.
According to Assoc Prof Weerachai, besides these two, there are more than 10 other lecturers at several universities who used the same approach to promote their academic credentials and benefits.
Chiang Mai University and the Chulaborn Royal Academy said they have begun probes into the claims.
The universities must take these cases seriously to protect their academic reputation. Academics who use ghostwritten manuscripts and pay to have them published must be punished for their unethical behaviour.
Where the question of how many more similar cases at local universities is concerned, Mhesi must improve the verification process to prevent unscrupulous lecturers getting ahead by using such unethical means.
The damage is not limited to the universities concerned but the reputation of the country's higher education as a whole.
