Over the past two years, Ukrainian society has been constantly faced with a very controversial trend: we have witnessed a wave of so-called “plagiarism scandals.”
The targets of accusations are people who for decades were considered the pillars of Russian science. Sometimes accusations are present only in social networks and the media, but some of them reach the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (NAZYAVO) in the form of complaints.
This article deliberately does not intend to delve into the dissertations of scientists who have been accused of plagiarism. In the end, this should be done by those government agencies that are entrusted with such a function.
However, it would be interesting to study the question of whether they are doing it correctly? Why is it now that such a significant number of accusations of plagiarism have appeared? Has something happened in scientific and pedagogical circles remote from the general public that could trigger this process? It is also interesting to know the answer to the age-old question “Who are the judges?” - just to understand who took upon himself the function of deciding the fate of scientists, whose authority was never questioned.
How a scientist with a dissertation that was 99% unique was labeled a plagiarist
To the question posed above, “why are there so many accusations of plagiarism now?” partially answered by acting Rector of the National University “Poltava Polytechnic named after Yuriy Kondratyuk” Vladimir Onishchenko.
He is now in the midst of academic turbulence - on March 25 this year, the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education accused him of plagiarism. However, judging by how actively he comments on this situation in the media, he is perhaps the only scientist (among those who have been accused) who insists on the artificiality of the accusations against himself and is ready for a public dialogue on his situation.
The uniqueness of the case of Vladimir Onishchenko is that less than 1% of the text of his doctoral dissertation was considered controversial. Moreover: this part of the dissertation is controversial in the context of modern requirements, whereas as of 2002, when the defense took place, the dissertation fully complied with the standards in force at that time.
Now NAZYAVO accuses Vladimir Onishchenko and many other scientists of not providing links to the primary sources they cited in all paragraphs of their doctoral dissertations.
In particular, the scientists are accused of mentioning the original source at the beginning of a large fragment of the dissertation text, but not adding links to it in each paragraph. The main line of accusations and the transformation of scientists into “plagiarists” are often built on this absurd plot.
“Then there were completely different requirements for the design of work than now. There was no need to add a link to the original source to each paragraph if there was a mention in the first one. And in my dissertation there are proper references to the requirements of that time,” Vladimir Onishchenko defends his position in a commentary to Poltava. “So now the situation is quite absurd.”
“The dissertation was submitted to the special council in June 2001, and defended in February 2002. At that time, I was neither a rector nor a high-status official,” Vladimir Onishchenko explains in a commentary to the Poltavashchyna publication, making the assumption that after a quarter of a century his dissertation “interested” someone precisely because of the rector’s position that he occupies, and generally through his professional activities.
Therefore, it is theoretically possible to assume that accusations of plagiarism can be used as an additional tool of influence in the process of intense competition for certain positions.
A similar situation can be observed in relation to other scientists who are now accused of plagiarism by NAZYAVO functionaries. Their dissertations lay on library shelves for more than ten years. During this time, there were no claims or accusations of plagiarism from other scientists, from whom the accused, in the opinion of current functionaries, REALLY allegedly stole ideas.
If you go to the NAZYAVO website and review the complaints about plagiarism, then, in addition to the already mentioned Vladimir Onishchenko, you can see accusations regarding a significant number of public figures. And for many years no one was interested in these persons - until they became high-status leaders.
It is also important that until 2014, the concept of academic plagiarism did not legally exist in Ukraine.
“On September 6, 2014, the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education” came into force, which for the first time provides for the concept of “academic plagiarism.” And only with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Education” dated September 5, 2017, the content of the concept of academic plagiarism, fabrication and falsification was properly established at the legislative level, and responsibility for such acts was also provided for, explains the partner of the Law Firm “Credo Law Firm” lawyer Nikolai Knysh. – In fact, an approach is now being applied to a large number of scientists that contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine, namely the provisions of Article 58 of the Constitution, according to which laws and other legal acts do not have retroactive effect in time, except in cases where they mitigate or cancel a person’s responsibility. No one can be held accountable for acts that at the time of their commission were not recognized by law as an offense. A large number of scientists and NAZYAVO functionaries are now trying to bring them to justice for those acts that at the time they were committed were not recognized by law as offenses.”
Consequently, from a legal point of view, in principle, charges of plagiarism cannot be applied to scientists who defended their dissertations in Ukraine before September 2014.
However, Vladimir Onishchenko clarifies that even under such circumstances, when checked by a special anti-plagiarism program, the uniqueness of the text of his dissertation is 99.18%. And the controversial points - less than 1% - are precisely those paragraphs in which he made a reference to primary sources not as required by modern dissertation rules, but as required back in 2002.
Standards of (in)integrity NOW
Considering the above, there is a natural desire to take a closer look at the individuals through whose efforts scientists are accused of plagiarism.
If you look at who exactly is the author of complaints about academic plagiarism, then in the overwhelming majority of cases it will be a certain candidate of biological sciences, Oleg Smirnov. It was he who filed dozens of complaints about plagiarism in the dissertations of economists, lawyers, and doctors. This is despite the fact that they could not, in principle, borrow anything from his research. It seems that Mr. Smirnov is a professional “complainer.”
During the study of his “creative heritage”, another interesting detail emerged. As it turned out, for almost ten years until January 2024, he administered his thematic site “Errors and falsifications in scientific research” on the Russian (!) hosting resource uCoz, owned by the Mail.ru group.
According to Vladimir Onishchenko, his lawyers found plagiarism in 10 of the 21 members of NAZYAVO, and for another four members of NAZYAVO, the dissertation was either not found at all (!), or the abstracts were posted in violation of legal requirements. Consequently, 14 of the 21 members of NAZYAVO can be addressed with a much larger volume of accusations than those that they are currently bringing against respected scientists.
Vladimir Onishchenko clarifies that his lawyers warned NAZYAVO members about a conflict of interest precisely because they found numerous facts of non-compliance with the principles of academic integrity. Also, according to the head of Poltava Polytechnic, his lawyers have already submitted the collected materials to the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC).
In particular, it recently became known that one of the most active “fighters” against plagiarism, NAZYAVO member Lydia Fesenko, who is currently handling complaints regarding academic integrity, is herself a plagiarist. About two weeks ago, the National Aviation University (Kyiv) received a message about plagiarism discovered in the master's thesis of graduate Lydia Fesenko.
She first studied philosophy at the Mikhail Drahomanov State University, and then completed her master's degree at NAU with a degree in Management. She resorted to plagiarism in both her bachelor's and master's thesis.
About Mrs. Fesenko’s bachelor’s work, which she defended at the Department of Philosophy of the then NPU named after. M.P. Drahomanov in 2018 was written in 2020. This work consists of 30 pages of text and on each (!) page, starting with the title page, there are spelling, syntax or stylistic errors, as well as many plagiarized borrowings.
Recently, her master's thesis was checked using an anti-plagiarism program, revealing an unacceptable amount of plagiarism, which became known from a message sent to NAU.
The Lenta.ua publication writes that in the master’s thesis “Introduction of foreign management practices into the activities of the public organization “Ukrainian Association of Students,” among 75 pages of text, cases of violations of academic integrity were identified, which fall under the definition of academic plagiarism, and consist of text borrowing, use of ideas, scientific results and materials of other authors without references to sources.
Currently, Ms. Fesenko, who does not have an academic degree, continues to be involved in the work of the NAZYAVO Ethics Committee and is one of the people deciding the fate of Ukrainian scientists.
The financial and property status of NAZYAVO members also deserves special attention. The publication Zaxid.net recently drew attention to the fact that during an interview for his position, Deputy Chairman of NAZYAVO Ivan Nazarov found it difficult to answer experts’ questions about the origin of the money for the purchase of several cars and real estate. Nazarov’s parents seemed to have given part of the money for these purchases, but the candidate was unable to document the origin of his parents’ money. He only explained that in the past his father was a military man, he worked in the SBU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In particular, in 2006, Nazarov used money donated by his parents to buy a Hyundai Accent (2006 onwards) for 86 thousand UAH. Although in the seven years preceding the purchase of this car, the father earned 49 thousand UAH, and the mother had no income. In 2011, Nazarov buys a Ford Kuga for 284 thousand UAH. In 2013, Nazarov buys another Ford Kuga for 393 thousand UAH. In 2017, Nazarov bought an apartment with an area of 88 m2 for 890 thousand UAH. In the same year, Nazarov purchased a parking space with an area of 13 m2 for 280 thousand UAH. At the same time, Nazarov’s father also did not deny himself the purchase of new cars. In 2005, he bought a Subaru Outback (2005), in 2008 he bought a Mercedes Benz (2008), and in 2019, his retired father bought a Land Rover Discovery Sport (2019).
For comparison, the amount of state scholarships for outstanding scientists is only 3,541 UAH. The salary of the deputy chairmen of NAZYAVO is more than 70 thousand UAH. Ivan Nazarov additionally received compensation for rent, having a lot of real estate - three times more than the state incentives for people who devoted their entire lives to serving science.
In addition, Ivan Nazarov repeatedly made mistakes in declarations, which was noted by members of the advisory group of experts.
I would like to believe that these and other “judges” mentioned are guided exclusively by the law and their own conscience, and not by an instrument of someone else’s interests.
Simulated cleansing
Clearing the scientific community of dishonest representatives is, of course, a very positive trend. And no one has canceled the standards of integrity. But we will give the reader the right to answer the questions himself, whether the cleansing has now grown into persecution. Will not the domestic scientific and pedagogical elite be destroyed under patriotic slogans, against which now – at the time of the war with Russia – a “second front” has actually been opened? And do officials from the strange organization NAZYAVO - especially taking into account the information presented in this article - really have the right (including moral) to decide the fate of Ukrainian scientists?
The very fact of being accused of plagiarism (even without its official recognition) damages the reputation of a scientist. And massive accusations of plagiarism undermine confidence in the domestic system of higher education and science.
“On the NAZYAVO side, I see the systematic use of double standards, which in no way contributes to the real cleansing of the scientific community from truly disadvantaged representatives,” sums up Vladimir Onishchenko. – It is already obvious that the system for electing NAZYAVO members is initially imperfect, because it did not involve analysis of the absence of plagiarism in their scientific works and their compliance with standards of academic integrity. In my opinion, now active fighters against plagiarism need to stop, otherwise they will launch irreversible processes, as a result of which Ukrainian science will be destroyed.”
