Mereja.Forum

[sarcasm]

Dr Abiy Ethiopia has become the World's Capital of Scientific Paper Retraction | Plagiarism in Abiy Ahmed’s PhD Thesis

Is PM Abiy Ahmed leading by example?

The analysis, posted Jan. 12, examines the rates at which papers were retracted from the scientific literature from 2022 to 2024.



#CapitalNews የኢትዮጵያ ተመራማሪዎች ከአለም በበለጠ የሳይንሳዊ ጽሑፎቻቸው ይሰረዛሉ - አዲስ ጥናት

በቅርቡ ይፋ የሆነ አንድ አዲስ ጥናት በኢትዮጵያ ተመራማሪዎች የተጻፉት ሳይንሳዊ ጽሑፎች ከአለም ውስጥ ካሉ ከማንኛውም ሀገር ተመራማሪዎች በበለጠ መጠን ተሰርዘዋል ወይም ተመልሰው ተወስደዋል ሲል አመልክቷል ።

ይህም በኢትዮጵያዊያን ተመራማሪዎች የተጻፉ በርካታ ሳይንሳዊ ፅሁፎች ከእውነት የራቁ ወይም ከፍተኛ የጥራት ችግር ያለባቸው በመሆናቸው ከአሳታሚዎች እንዲሰረዙ መደረጉን አመልክቷል።

በህንድ የሚገኝ የውሂብ ሳይንቲስት የሆኑት አቻል አግራዋል ባካሄዱት ይህ ጥናት፣ ኢትዮጵያ በዚህ ዝርዝር ውስጥ ቀዳሚ ስትሆን ሳውዲ አረቢያ፣ ፓኪስታን፣ ቻይና እና ግብፅ በመቀጠል ከፍተኛውን የፅሁፍ መሰረዝ መጠን ያሳዩ ሀገራት ናቸው።

ተመራማሪው አግራዋል እንዳሉት፣ ይህ ሊሆን የቻለው በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ ጥራት የሌላቸውን ፅሁፎች በንቃት የሚከታተሉና የሚያጋልጡ ጠንካራ የሳይንስ ባለሙያዎች ማህበረሰብ ባለመኖሩ ሊሆን ይችላል።

በአንጻሩ እንደ ፈረንሳይ ያሉ ሀገራት የምርምርን ታማኝነት በማረጋገጥ ረገድ ግንባር ቀደም ሲሆኑ፣ ጥራት የሌላቸውን ፅሁፎች በመለየትና በማስወገድ ረገድም ውጤታማ ናቸው ብለዋል።
ጥናቱ አብዛኛዎቹ ፅሁፎች የተሰረዙበት ምክንያት በግልጽ እንደሚታየው በሐቀኛ ስህተት ሳይሆን፣ "አብዛኛው" የሚሆነው በተለያዩ የሥነ ምግባር ጉድለቶች የተነሳ እንደሆነ ይጠቁማል። ይህም የውሸት መረጃዎችን ማቅረብ፣ የሌሎችን ስራ ያለ ፈቃድ መጠቀም (ስርቆት) ወይም በምርምር ሂደቱ ተገቢ ያልሆኑ ድርጊቶችን መፈጸምን ያካትታል።
በተጨማሪም ጥናቱ እንዳመለከተው ከፍተኛ የመሻር መጠን ያሳዩት ሀገራት በአብዛኛው እስከ 2023 ባሉት አምስት ዓመታት ውስጥ በአጠቃላይ የሳይንሳዊ ፅሁፎቻቸው ቁጥር ላይ ከፍተኛ ጭማሪ አሳይተዋል። ይሁን እንጂ ያለ ተገቢ የምርምር መሰረተ ልማት ዕድገት በአንድ ሀገር ውስጥ የሚታየው እንዲህ አይነት የፅሁፎች ቁጥር መጨመር ብዙውን ጊዜ በመጨረሻ ወደ ብዙ መሰረዞች የሚመሩ የውሸት ጥናቶች ምልክት ነው ሲል ጥናቱ ይገልጻል።



Plagiarism in Abiy Ahmed’s PhD Thesis: How will Addis Ababa University handle this?

World Peace Foundation

Ever since Abiy Ahmed was awarded his PhD degree at the Institute of Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) at Addis Ababa University in 2017, questions have been asked about whether this was a legitimate doctorate. One of us (Rundassa) was the first to publicly call out plagiarism. Last year another of this
group (de Waal) made available a copy of the thesis and raised concerns. This post revisits the question of plagiarism.

There is now sufficient evidence to demand Addis Ababa University to re-examine Abiy’s thesis; it is adequate to suspend or revoke a doctorate. In comparable cases, universities have revoked doctoral degrees on the basis of plagiarism. Addis Ababa University rescinded a Master’s thesis for plagiarism in 2019 and adopted a policy prohibiting plagiarism in 2020.

Another approach would be to suspend the award of the PhD degree pending major revision, re-submission and re-examination.

Because decision makers have a tendency to exploit their academic degrees to boost their legitimacy in the eyes of the public, dissertations have come under scrutiny. Crowd sourcing in Germany, for example (VroniPlag Wiki), led to exposure of a long list of doctoral degrees of political figures with significant levels of plagiarism. Several, including a defense minister and a minister for education and research—were stripped of their doctorates and resigned. Exposure of fraudulent degrees have forced a senior politician in South Africa out of office and caused controversy in Kenya. In Russia, the scientific anti-plagiarism group Dissernet discovered that more than 10% of State Duma members received university degrees with theses that were heavily plagiarized and possibly ghost written.

With the appointment of Abiy Ahmed as Prime Minister in 2018, Ethiopia has increased its reliance on PhD holders for high-level political roles. Ethiopia’s Minister of Defense, Abraham Belay, for example, proudly employs the Twitter handle @AbrahamPostDoc.

We looked at Abiy’s PhD dissertation to see if there were indications of plagiarism. The title of the thesis is “Social Capital and its Role in Traditional Conflict Resolution: The Case of Inter-religious Conflict in Jimma Zone of the Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia”, completed in 2016 and defended in 2017.

Continue reading https://worldpeacefoundation.org/blog/p ... ndle-this/

[Abere]

___To be honest, if someone aspires for a lasting thesis research I would not advise to include temporal names of places, events, incidences, etc. I have known of people writing their PhD thesis on AIDs pandemic, etc, I used to tell them it is not appealing to me. Just like that the name "Oromia" is a fictitious name so is Zone - it might appeal for a term paper not for PhD. This is just my opinion.

___ Addis Ababa university has been a political institution than an academic research university since occupied by TPLF. Since then, it has been receiving underprepared students both at undergraduate and graduate levels. The quality of faculty has gone down too. In reality, nearly 90% its entering students require at least 2 remedial courses. For head TPLF/OLF cadres AAU is an open admission type - any cadre producing a letter of order with stamp would be admitted. Worse, even can get the diploma printed in his/her name. AAU never bothered even to use Turnitin to check originality of the work or established originality index based on level of the thesis submitted for examination. In many western universities even term papers go through Turnitin. It is an insult for AAU to grant a PhD thesis where more than 2/3 or 66% of the works is stolen from others scholarly work. In my opinion, it is Addis Ababa university that has been plagiarizing.