Parabéns, senhor ministro!

[...]

Neste quadro, o Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior, sempre que tenha notícia da prática de ilícitos nas praxes, dela dará imediato conhecimento ao Ministério Público, bem como lançará mão dos meios aptos a responsabilizar - civil e criminalmente, por acção ou omissão — os órgãos próprios das instituições do ensino superior, as associações de estudantes e ainda quaisquer outras entidades que, podendo e devendo fazê-lo, não tenham procedido de modo a procurar evitar os danos ocorridos.

[...]

Com os melhores cumprimentos,

O Ministro da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior

José Mariano Gago

(Ofício enviado hoje ao CRUP)

Os perigos do excesso de especialização

Auto-plagiarismo em ciência

This month sees the launch of CrossCheck, an anti-plagiarism system for academic journals created by iParadigms to help publishers verify the originality of submitted work. It will cover 20 million journal articles from major publishers including Elsevier, Nature Publishing Group, Oxford University Press and Sage.

John Barrie, chief executive of iParadigms and the man who developed the technology behind Turnitin, the plagiarism-detection software, described self-plagiarism as a "huge" problem.

"Academics receive tenure based on their publications - it is publish or perish. That system creates this massive conflict of interest," he said.

"Anybody who has done any research knows it is very difficult to do. You just can't crank out five, ten papers a year unless (...) you have a research team of 20 people."


A pilot study by Tracey Bretag and Saadia Carapiet [ver também] from the University of South Australia found that 60 per cent of authors in a random sample of 269 papers from the Web of Science social science and humanities database had self-plagiarised at least once in the period 2003-06. Self-plagiarism was defined "quite generously" as occurring when 10 per cent or more text from any single previous publication was reused without a citation.

"The truth is that if these authors had self-cited in each case, it is unlikely that the editors would have published their work because they would have seen that it had all been published before," Dr Bretag said.

[Fiquei tão admirado, que mais não faço que copiar e colar pedaços do texto do artigo de Rebbeca Attwood, no THE. Como será a situação no campo das Ciências Exactas e Naturais?]

Valores fundamentais da honestidade académica

1. Honesty.  [An academic community of integrity] advances the quest for truth and knowledge by requiring intellectual and personal honesty in learning, teaching, research, and service.
2. Trust.  [...] fosters a climate of mutual trust, encourages the free exchange of ideas, and enables all to reach their highest potential.
3. Fairness.  [...] establishes clear standards, practices, and procedures and expects fairness in the interactions of students, faculty, and administrators.
4. Respect. [...] recognizes the participatory nature of the learning process and honors and respects a wide range of opinions and ideas.
5. Responsibility. [...] upholds personal accountability and depends upon action in the face of wrongdoing.

To develop a strong program for academic integrity, every academic institution should:

1. Have clear academic integrity statements, policies, and procedures that are consistently implemented.
   
2. Inform and educate the entire community regarding academic integrity policies and procedures.
   
3. Promulgate and rigorously practice these policies and procedures from the top down, and provide support to those who faithfully follow and uphold them.
   
4. Have a clear, accessible, and equitable system to adjudicate suspected violations of policy.
   
5. Develop programs to promote academic integrity among all segments of the campus community. These programs should go beyond repudiation of academic dishonesty and include discussions about the importance of academic integrity and its connection to broader ethical issues and concerns.
   
6. Be alert to trends in higher education and technology affecting academic integrity on its campus.
   
7. Regularly assess the effectiveness of its policies and procedures and take steps to improve and rejuvenate them.
   

The Center for Academic Integrity (1999)

 THE FUNDAMENTAL VALUES OF ACADEMIC INTEGRI T Y

Expectativas à entrada na universidade

Um artigo no THE sobre as expectativas (e os desapontamentos) dos alunos do 1º ano.

Chamou-me a atenção um dos pontos ali levantados: o da diferença entre os tipos de ensino no secundário e na universidade, incluindo um apelo ao diálogo entre os dois sistemas.

Michael Arthur, vice-chancellor of the University of Leeds, agrees that the difference in teaching styles between school and university causes problems. New students struggle to adjust to genuinely independent study, he says, and it is up to universities to address this gulf between the two levels of education.

"I have become quite concerned about the rather assessment-driven process that pupils go through in primary and secondary education," says Arthur. "I think it's got worse. I think they are being increasingly taught in the context of getting good grades in an assessment. When they come here, they expect something similar."

He continues: "We should be influencing secondary education in particular, and possibly as far back as primary. It's not just the responsibility of secondary and primary education, it's also a responsibility of higher education to change things at the front end of courses."

Não me parece que em Portugal este problema seja grave. Estarei enganado?