The Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain condemned the “without analgesics” of Spanish researchers They are highly cited for changing their primary affiliation with universities in Saudi Arabia.
“The search for funding, through research projects and the hiring of researchers and technical staff, is usually responsible for putting some researchers into complex or incorrect situations, in the spirit of obtaining funds. However, in science, just as in any other human activity , Not all is wellThe foundation ruled in a statement.
The report of the ‘affiliation game between Spanish and Saudi higher education and research institutions’, carried out by Chancellor Ceres after publishing an article in El País in which he reported that the chemist Rafael Luque was suspended by the University of Córdoba from revealing his job and salary for the next thirteen years due to scientific affiliation Incorrect for his research output, dozens of Spanish researchers entered the list of Highly Cited Researchers in Carivete (HRC) with a main affiliation in a Spanish institution, but most of them after a year, changed their main affiliation to a Saudi university.
For the Royal Academy of Sciences, Ethical behavior towards oneself, colleagues, and society should govern scientific work.. “It is worth saying that the position of the scientific world is generally self-critical,” he noted.
The foundation warned of “some bad practices” by researchers and institutions “that deserve attention and vigilance so that the scientific community can correct and eliminate them”: “Ignoring them would misrepresent the usual procedure in Spanish and international science”.
He specifically referred to the fact that “serious doubts” had been raised as to the quality and number of publications that a scholar could responsibly produce, as well as the supposed affiliation of some distinguished researchers to institutions with which he had scholarly contact. Practically nothing.”
For this reason, it has condemned these behaviors “without analgesics” and declared itself “strongly” in this sense: “Scientific work consists of Long-distance race to enhance knowledgeFor the good of humanity and its sustainable progress.”
The Royal Academy of Sciences has indicated that scientific results “must be the result of rigorous application of method and methodical work through observation, experimentation or theoretical elaboration”.
Therefore, a scholarly publication should, in his opinion, provide “content that is disparate and reproducible by any other scholar, while also noting an emphasis on the novelty of the work, so as to imply Scientific or technical progress“.
On these grounds, he specified that the research community “has formed certain ethical principles that also emerge from relations of respect, trust and criticism among colleagues, and are necessary for the application of the method to transcend and its results to be reliable and renewed, sooner or later, for the benefit of the community, which will benefit the most in the long run of knowledge advancement.
Finally, the entity stressed its commitment to supporting scientific development: “Our institution is aware of Convenience and need to play in the historical scenario in which we livewhere important positive developments emerge, but also contradictions and deviations that must be resolved and denounced with ethical and scientific criteria, with an analysis of each case separately.