VietNamNet Bridge - Widespread and inconclusive discussions occurred after the HCM City Economics University (UEH) announced big rewards to researchers who have articles published in ISI/Scopus publications.

University lecturers are encourage to have articles published on ISI journals

The articles with IF>2 (influence index) will be rewarded VND200 million, while articles with IF>1 will be rewarded VND150 million, and IF< 1 will get VND100 million.

As such, the reward for one research work at UEH is seven times higher than that stipulated in the government Decree 99/2014.

Tran Duc Vien, president of the Vietnam Agriculture Academy, said in the context of the strong development of higher education, the policy of UEH needs to be supported.

A university lecturer in Hanoi said the number of articles in ISI/Scopus journals is an important index when ranking universities. The high ranking contributes to prestige and makes it easier to enroll students.

Applauding the policy by UEH, Pham Hiep, a postgraduate at the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan, said VND200 million was not a huge amount compared with the efforts researchers have to make.

“It’s not easy to have an internationally published article with IF>2,” he said. In order to have an article with IF>1 last year, Hiep and his professor had to work for nearly three years. 

Hiep is interested in UEH’s promise to give financial support of VND10 million to groups of researchers who register to conduct research projects at the state and ministerial levels. If researchers fail to register, UEH will give financial support of VND35 million.

Hiep commented that no other school can do this. “Lecturers still receive support to implement their research. This will give them more confidence to continue their work,” he said.

At Hanoi National University, the number of lecturers who have internationally published articles has increased by 10-15 percent year on year, according to Vu Van Tich, head of the school’s science & technology division.

Tich said the reward policy had contributed significantly to this figure.

Under Decree 99, the reward is 30 times higher than the basic salary, or VND35-36 million for every article. Tich admitted that the cost for scientific research is much higher.

However, a survey conducted by Dr Dang Van Son from the Hanoi University of Natural Sciences, a member school of the Hanoi National University, showed that the number of articles per PhD is still modest, just 0.3-0.4 articles per annum. Some PhDs have never published an article.

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Mai Thanh