Scientists say about Tulej that he would not have obtained a doctorate today

TOP 09 candidate for Minister of Science Pavel Tuleja talked about the fact that he had written dozens of professional articles during his professional life. “I have noticed that information has appeared about texts that I co-authored and that have been published in journals on Beall’s list. I publicly apologize for this mistake,” he said.

But scientific economists tore down his publishing activity as such.

“They talk about dozens of publications, but we don’t know where. Maybe at conferences that have marginal importance and no impact,” Martin Srholec, former deputy director for research at CERGE-EI of Charles University and the Institute of National Economy of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, evaluates the research activities of Pavel Tuleja.

“His publications have around 50 citations, the vast majority of them are from authors from the Czech Republic. At his level of seniority, it’s zero with zero, so it’s like he has nothing.” Science economist Martin Srholec is even surprised that he even got the title of associate professor.

“It’s quite strange that such a person can have a doctorate. It was probably many, many years ago. Today, he would certainly not get it for publication performance, his scientific research results are negligible,” he adds.

“If we were to conduct a selection process for an academic worker in our department, we would reject a candidate with such a profile, even if no one better applied and it was a junior position. It would be obvious that he cannot be expected to produce results of international quality in the future. It’s hard, but that’s how it is,” says Josef Montag, docent at the Department of Economics and Empirical Legal Studies at the Faculty of Law of the Charles University and vice-chairman of the evaluation panel of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic for the Economy.

“Professor Tuleja does not have any publications in the field of economics that could be described as high or medium quality. His only two publications in the field are in insignificant Czech journals. In addition, he has only one serious publication, in the Journal of Cleaner Production from 2021. But this journal falls into environmental sciences,” he adds.

One of the most cited Czech economists, Jakub Steiner from CERGE-EI, is also critical of Pavel Tuleja’s work.

“The new minister for science regrets publishing in predatory journals. But he is said to be a respected economist with dozens of high-quality publications. So I looked at the minister’s biography, and although I am also an economist, I don’t know any of the magazines he publishes in,” he said on the X network.

The president of TOP 09, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, responded briefly to the Seznam Práv inquiry regarding Tuleja. “I will not comment on anything, thank you for your understanding,” she answered the journalist with a smile.

One of the members of the editor’s office confirmed on the spot that the members of the party leadership have been sitting in Pekarová’s office in the House of Representatives since morning. However, he did not want to specify what they are discussing.

The first vice-chairman of the party and the Minister of Health, Vlastimil Válek, refused to talk to the editor, arguing that he did not have time.

According to another of the members of the presidency, with whom Seznam Zprávy spoke, now whether he will withstand the pressure and become a minister will mainly depend on Tulej. “It’s going to be up to him if he wants to continue and if he can defend it,” he said, adding that he was surprised that this information came out now and not in the past. “He was elected rector not once, but also twice. He was also a member of the rectors’ conference,” he added.

According to rank-and-file members with whom the editors spoke, the opinions on the exchange of Helena Langšádlová for Pavel Tuleja in the party are not clear-cut. “I was against her replacement, but the party chairwoman pushed for it,” said one of the party’s deputies.

“I cannot comment on the meeting, we will continue it. But we are not only dealing with Mr. Tuleja, said board member Martina Lisová. Minister Válek referred the second request for an interview to the press department.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) considers it important that TOP 09 candidate for Minister of Science, Research and Innovation, Pavel Tuleja, clears up all doubts surrounding his scientific publishing activities in the next few hours or days. It is important that all doubts are clarified before the appointment. To make it clear whether this is an isolated error or whether there is greater doubt about the quality of scientific work, Fiala told ČTK.

The prime minister said that on Thursday Tuleja informed him that the University of Silesia in Opava would withdraw from the publication list articles that were published in journals included in the list of so-called potentially predatory journals. He emphasized that this was an isolated misconduct, for which he apologized. “However, new comments and information are appearing, and Tuleja must respond to them and explain them convincingly,” Fiala said today.

The coalition partners generally agree that it is a TOP 09 nomination and that it and its possible complications must also resolve it on its own. Most of those interviewed repeated the traditional platitude about not framing the candidates with each other.

“This is a matter of TOP 09,” Petr Hladík, Minister of the Environment and member of the KDU-ČSL board, told Seznam Zprávám. According to the Minister for Legislation, Michal Šalomoun (Pirates), the information known so far should not jeopardize the nomination of the minister, but he also pointed out that it is completely in the charge of TOP 09, which according to the coalition agreement belongs to this post.