The University of Silesia in Opava will investigate the publication and conference activities of vice-rector Pavel Tuleja (TOP 09). According to the results of the Ethics Commission’s investigation, Rector Tomáš Gongol will then decide whether or not to accept the resignation that Tuleja offered him.
In addition to Tuleja, the investigation will also concern his colleague Michal Tvrdon, who works at the Faculty of Business and Entrepreneurship of the University of Silesia.
Was he getting paid?
“The Rector will ask the Ethics Commission of the University of Silesia in Opava to investigate the publication and conference activities of associate professors Pavel Tuleja and Michal Tvrdoně, which have been criticized by the media. He will also provide them with his findings regarding possible payments for publications and conference participation once he has them,” the university said in a statement.
The investigation by the Ethics Commission will aim to find out whether the activities of both academics are in accordance with the legislation and internal regulations of the university. “On the basis of the established conclusions, the rector draws relevant consequences. In the light of these findings, it will also decide whether or not to accept the proposed resignation of associate professor Pavel Tuleja for the position of vice-rector,” the school said in a statement.
One of the subjects of criticism, which the university is currently unable to confirm or deny, and therefore will continue to deal with, is, for example, whether Tulej’s publications in predatory journals brought any funding. “If that happened, with a very high probability, it was at most a thousand crowns taxed in the salary,” the university said.
Tuleja’s publishing activities became a topic of discussion after he was proposed by the party as her successor following the dismissal of the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation Helena Langšádlová (TOP 09).
However, he gave up his ministerial nomination after Seznam Zprávy published the findings that he had published his professional texts in so-called predatory magazines. Tuleja first suggested that he pull the articles from his publication list. However, he subsequently decided to step down from the ministerial post even before his appointment in response to criticism of his professional work.
Predator magazines – anything for the money
The Silesian University in Opava itself warns against predatory publications on the website. “For a fee, authors are offered the possibility of making their scientific work visible in the form of publication in a journal, publication of a monograph, participation in a conference, etc., while there is no actual review process or other control of the plausibility and quality of the results made visible. This is a clearly negative phenomenon that threatens one of the basic principles of scientific research – high-quality review management and the need to successfully defend one’s results in front of colleagues from the field (peer review), the school states.
A list of possible predatory magazines in the past was compiled by University of Colorado expert Jeffrey Beall. Among serious scientists, listing a periodical on Beall’s list means only one thing—avoid it. Predatory journals are a parasite on the science funding system.
Tags: Nonminister Tuleja offered resign university ethics commission investigate case
