In an unprecedented situation in Spain, the Spanish Committee on Research Ethics urged the University of Salamanca on June 11 to verify in an “exhaustive and independent” manner the “alleged bad practices” of its rector, Juan Manuel Corchado, one of the most cited scientists in the world thanks to thousands of self-quotesto urge his own workers to summon him dozens of times fake profiles dedicated to mentioning him. The Governing Council of the university has chosen this Wednesday the coordinator “expert, independent and external” of that inspection: Salvador Rus Rufinoa professor at the University of León who has described the reports on Corchado as “attacks” on the University of Salamanca.
Vox considered Rus Rufino to be the Culture Minister of the Junta de Castilla y León, according to published in 2022 the newspaper ABCin which this professor of History of Thought is a columnist. In his May 21 contribution, Rus Rufino suggested the existence of a conspiracy against Corchado. “For several months now, the University of Salamanca has been the target of some attacks and criticisms that call into question its prestige. The institution is currently subject to permanent scrutiny by a media group demanding integrity, transparency and good academic practice in research and in the transfer of results, which does not seem to apply equally to other universities. The focus of the attacks in recent weeks is the recently elected rector of the University,” The professor stated de León. “We must use the same yardstick for everyone, because using different standards for equivalent situations leads to the suspicion that the accusations respond to a specific interest and, therefore, lose credibility,” he added.
Just one month after Rus Rufino’s column questioning the information about Corchado, the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE) issued a harsh statementin which he proposed new elections for the Salamanca rectorate and a truly independent commission to investigate the current rector. “His reputation as a researcher is clearly and seriously in question, which undoubtedly tarnishes the reputation of the University of Salamanca itself and, by extension, that of the Spanish university as a whole, both nationally and internationally,” warned COSCE, an organisation that brings together 88 societies representing more than 40,000 scientists.
Since June 17, more than 220 professors from the Salamanca institution have signed a manifesto demanding an independent investigation, without interference from its rector. “As these events may affect the prestige of the Spanish university and scientific system, we recommend that the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) be contacted in order to propose independent experts from outside the University of Salamanca for the investigative committee,” propose the signatories, among whom are around fifty professors and 15 former vice-rectors.
Critical professors have denounced that the university’s Governing Council dismissed on June 27 that the CRUE should coordinate the investigation into the rector. Corchado himself attended that session and was only absent during the voting. The Governing Council is chaired by the rector, who also directly appoints 10 of its 53 members. 30 of them voted for Rus Rufino this Wednesday.
We have lost a great opportunity to contain and clarify the reputational loss of the University of Salamanca and of the rector Corchado himself.
Francisco Sánchez, director of the Ibero-American Institute of the University of Salamanca
The political scientist Francisco Sanchezdirector of the Ibero-American Institute at the University of Salamanca, expressed his disappointment. “We have lost a great opportunity to contain and clarify the reputational loss of the University of Salamanca and of the rector Corchado himself. The mediation of the CRUE, which offered guarantees to all, should have been accepted and the proposal of the rector himself should not have been accepted for an investigation by a commissioner appointed by a body in which he has a majority,” says Sánchez. “In addition, the person proposed is not foreign to the University of Salamanca, since is a member of one of the institutes [el Instituto de Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas y de Humanidades Digitales] and, above all, Rus Rufino has left in writing in the ABC that this is a case of media persecution, thus focusing attention on the messenger and not on the facts,” the political scientist emphasizes.
Jose Antonio Sendina professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Salamanca, also questions the suitability of Rus Rufino — “He does not even have a scientific profile” — and believes that the results of his investigation will be unacceptable. “The procedure is flawed from the beginning. It does not provide any kind of guarantee of independence or impartiality,” he says. Corchado and Rus Rufino know each other and have participated together in different acts in recent years.
Meanwhile, the outcry against Corchado’s practices is growing. The professor of Computer Science at the University of Salamanca It was until a few days ago one of the 15 members of the board of directors of the Spanish Association for Artificial Intelligence (AEPIA). After an election, all of them were reelected except Corchado, whose name and photo have disappeared from the web. The president of AEPIA, Alicia Troncoso, explains that the position of her association is represented in the COSCE s
tatementwhich called for a truly independent investigation and suggested calling new elections for rector at the University of Salamanca.
Troncoso, a professor at the Pablo de Olavide University (Seville), also supports the manifesto of the reference organization in the sector. “The Scientific Informatics Society of Spain (SCIE) is committed to the highest standards of integrity and responsibility, and therefore condemns all attitudes and behaviors that imply a lack of ethics and bad practices in publication, such as those that have been denounced by the media,” she says. that statementpublished on June 20 without explicitly mentioning Corchado.
The Minister of Science, Diana Morant, has stressed the need for an impartial inspection. “What we have done as a Ministry and as a Government has been to request a report from the Spanish Committee on Research Ethics, which is what it is there for. And what the ethics committee has done is to mandate the University of Salamanca to carry out an independent investigation with guarantees that it sheds light on the serious accusations that the rector of Salamanca is receiving,” Morant declared on June 18 in an interview. in the program The night in 24 hoursfrom TVE.
In addition to the report of the Spanish Committee on Research Ethics, the manifesto of the 220 professors of the University of Salamanca and the statements of the COSCE and the SCIE, the Springer Nature publishing house has begun an inspection of Corchado’s publications and, on June 14, the State Research Agency, belonging to the Ministry of Science, announced that it has “precautionarily suspended” its collaboration with the rector. Despite this, the president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, and the mayor of Salamanca, Carlos García Carbayo, maintain their support for Corchado, who manages a budget of almost 290 million euros and wants to build a new campus on the former grounds of Mercasalamanca.
The professor of Computer Sciences stood as the only candidate in the elections for rector on May 7 and received 2,131 votes in favor, 6.5% of the 33,000 university students who were called to vote. Almost half of the permanent teaching staff (tenured and full professors) voted blank, after a call to express themselves in protest. Corchado, for the moment, has opted for silence and to identify the information and communications about him with attacks on the University of Salamanca. “I want to align myself with the concern expressed to preserve the prestige and history of our University, although I cannot share the way in which this concern is expressed. I believe that neither certain media nor certain writings with media impact are suitable instruments to preserve such prestige and history,” said the rector on June 19. in a letter sent to the university community.
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