One of the oldest universities in the world, Salamanca, is experiencing an unusual situation. On June 11, the Spanish Research Ethics Committee urged the institution to exercise “its powers of inspection and sanction” in the face of “the alleged bad practices” of its own rector, Juan Manuel Corchado. More than 150 professors have now signed a statement to demand that their rector not investigate himself, to “safeguard the prestige of the University of Salamanca and eliminate any suspicion of bad practices or permissiveness with them on the part of the institution.” , according to the text, to which EL PAÍS has had access.
Corchado, professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, boasted of being one of the 250 scientists most cited in the world in their field, thanks to a resume bloated with thousands of self-citationstens of fake profiles and written orders to his workers to summon him 20 times on each job. The 151 signatories—134 active professors and 17 retired—consider “the constitution of a commission made up of independent experts from outside the University of Salamanca” to be “essential” in order to verify the facts.
“Because the internal investigation should be initiated and supervised by the rector, and given the clear conflict of interest that this entails, we ask the University of Salamanca to take the appropriate steps so that the Junta de Castilla y León, as a responsible administration of the university system of the autonomous community […], urgently open a verification procedure with the relevant legal guarantees of transparency and impartiality,” the statement continues. The president of Research Ethics Committee from the University of Salamanca is Bertha Gutierrezwho has supported Corchado and is one of his vice-rectors.
The signatories of the statement put a proposal on the table. “As these events may affect the prestige of the Spanish university and scientific system, we recommend that you contact the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) in order to propose independent experts from outside the University of Salamanca for the investigative commission,” they point out. The scientific community contemplates the situation in the Salamanca rectorate with astonishment, as explained Alfonso Valencia, director of the Life Sciences department at the National Supercomputing Center, in Barcelona. “This is a tremendously serious case that undermines the image of the country. I’m in a meeting in Brussels with scientists from all over the world. How do I explain to them that this happens before our eyes and no one stops it?” Valencia asks.
The biologist José Aguilar Rodríguez, from Stanford University (United States), also shows his indignation. “I find it incredible that Corchado remains in positions of great academic and scientific power, considering the magnitude of his fraudulent practices, which are well documented and have reached frankly ridiculous levels. If it weren’t for the seriousness of the matter, everything he has done would even be comical,” says the scientist.
“We are talking about someone who should not be teaching or mentoring future researchers. How can it be that someone who has so flagrantly betrayed scientific ideals is training future generations of researchers? I am very concerned about the damage it has already caused and could continue to cause to young researchers. It is a very sad situation,” laments Aguilar Rodríguez.
This is a tremendously serious case that undermines the image of the country
Alfonso Valencia, National Supercomputing Center
The president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, supported Corchado at his enthronement ceremony, on May 31. “It is an honor for me to participate in this inauguration ceremony. Congratulations, rector. Congratulations, dear Juan Manuel,” Fernández Mañueco then declared. The people that is here They cheered for a minute to Corchado, despite the fact that his traps were already known. EL PAÍS published evidence of his bad practices on March 15, April 26 and May 30. Two years earlier, the American organization Retraction Watch, specialized in scientific fraud, already documented the thousands of Corchado self-citations and the existence of strange profiles of scientists dedicated to quote him compulsively. Despite this, the professor won the elections for rector on May 7, with 474 votes in favor among permanent professors (tenured and full professors), 401 blank and another 48 void. He was the only candidate.
The Springer Nature publishing house has also begun an investigation into Juan Manuel Corchado, after the publication in EL PAÍS of internal messages that show that the professor organized a dating cartel: a group of researchers organized to mention his studies even if it was not relevant. Its traps are easily verifiable: there are many papers in conference proceedings published in Springer Nature in which more than 90% of references They are irrelevant quotes to Corchado. With the help of this artificial prestige, the professor has achieved million euro projects for your group at the university or for your private entity, the AIR Institute.
The largest public body for funding science in Spain, the State Research Agency, suspended on June 14 as a precautionary measure its collaboration with the professor from Salamanca, who until now had had a role as an evaluator, with influence in the distribution of money. public of the institution, which manages a budget of 1,420 million euros annually.
The new statement asks that Corchado’s case not affect the rest of the institution. “The professors who subscribe to this manifesto consider that suspicion regarding the aforementioned scientific practices cannot be extended to the entire institution with the prestige and history of the University of Salamanca, nor can it be ignored by the members of the university community. “, they emphasize. Among the signatories there are 41 active professors, such as Juan Santos Varainternational law, and José María Díaz Mínguez, from Genetics; and teachers like Ana CuevasPhilosophy; Jose Manuel Bustos, Translation; and Nuria del Álamo, of social work. The complete list of signatories, to which this newspaper has had access, is not public because many are afraid of reprisals. The more than 150 signatures have been gathered in just one day.
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