Kurbatoff: Ministry of Education Does Not Require Participation in Conferences, Yet Scientists Spend Millions on This Imitation

Denis Kurbatoff, the Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, has raised alarms regarding the financial burdens placed on Ukrainian researchers who attend international conferences. According to Kurbatoff, the Ministry has not mandated participation in such events for several years, yet scientists continue to expend millions of hryvnias on what he describes as an imitation of genuine academic engagement.

In a series of interviews and social media posts, Kurbatoff questioned the rationale behind the purchase of participation certificates for international conferences by certain academics, especially since these certificates have lost their significance in the metrics used by the Ministry of Education and Science, particularly in the scientific domain. He stated in a Facebook post, "I have long been unable to find an answer to the question – why do some employees buy certificates of 'participation' in 'international' conferences?"

Kurbatoff cited the findings of a study that analyzed 701 conferences and over 46,000 abstracts within a single year. He noted that 95% of the abstracts were submitted by Ukrainian authors, despite the purportedly 'foreign' status of these events. Furthermore, 81.4% of the works published in international collections were written in Ukrainian. This indicates that Ukrainian researchers, despite formal requirements, continue to participate actively in conferences that do not meet the conventional understanding of being 'international.'

The Deputy Minister also pointed out manipulations related to the inflation of H-index scores. He provided an example where a researcher’s H-index on Google Scholar rose to 88 due to self-citations in abstracts. Kurbatoff estimated that Ukrainian scientists spent at least 12.4 million hryvnias annually on this imitation of scholarly activity.

"Although the Ministry of Education and Science has not required such activities in its regulatory framework for several years, it is likely that either internal university rankings continue to stimulate this demand, or there are other underlying factors at play," Kurbatoff added, suggesting possible reasons why researchers persist in spending money on conference participation.

He also acknowledged that there are indeed high-quality conferences; however, the issue remains whether these should be factored into performance metrics, as determining the degree of 'quality' for such events is highly problematic. This underscores the need for a clearer system for assessing scientific conferences and their real value to the academic community.

It is worth noting that the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine previously established a Commission on Publication Ethics, which will operate in accordance with the norms of the international committee on publication ethics. Additionally, the concept of 'predatory journals' has been introduced—these are publications that provoke misconduct, may sell publication slots for articles, or sell citations or the publications themselves. These innovations aim to enhance the quality of scientific publications and reduce the influence of unethical practices within the academic sphere.