Remove article with student's name: Author is director says 'not related'

PHOTO: RETRACTION WATCH FOR VIETNAM

Regarding the incident "Doubting the 'authenticity', international magazine removed an article with a student's name" that Thanh Nien reported a few days ago, this afternoon (May 22), Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Diep, CEO of IVY Education Company Limited (Ivycation) and one of the two authors of the article that was just removed, responded to Thanh Nien via email.

This email was also sent by Ms. Diep to Associate Professor, Dr. Le Quang Thao, the other corresponding author of the article and also the first author. Mr. Thao is a senior lecturer at the Physics Department, University of Science (Vietnam National University, Hanoi ).

"My role is to share ideas"

In the email, Ms. Diep said that she herself had no connection to the high school students whose names were in the article that was removed by the Journal of Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems ( JIFS ). The article, titled: "Application of deep learning to wireless sensor networks to monitor the emotions of high school students", was posted online on August 3, 2023 and was removed in April.

"I confirm that I have no personal or academic connection with the students named in the article. I have never worked directly with, taught, or counseled them. Up to this point, I have not had the opportunity to meet or talk with them," Ms. Diep wrote in an email, denying online speculation that the students who were in the same author group as her in the articles were her clients.

When asked about her contribution to the project, Ms. Diep said her role in the article was to "share some ideas" and "observe practices in the field of education." The implementation of these ideas and technical operations such as writing the article were exploited and carried out by the remaining authors, according to Ms. Diep. "I did not directly participate in editing the content, analyzing the data or submitting the article," she affirmed.

"The fact that the article was retracted also surprised me and I am asking the main author of the article (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Quang Thao - PV) to contact the editorial board to find out the reason," Ms. Diep added.

"I really hope that the above sharing will help clarify the malicious rumors about the author group," Ms. Diep said.

In the email, the female director also expressed her hope that Associate Professor Dr. Le Quang Thao would help confirm the information she had just mentioned in order to "contribute to protecting the common reputation of the parties involved". However, up to now, Mr. Thao has not responded to this email. Thanh Nien also contacted Mr. Thao since May 19, the time when the information about the article being removed appeared on social media, but has not received a response so far.

PHOTO: JIFS

Previously, as Thanh Nien reported, Ms. Diep and Mr. Thao were the corresponding authors of 3 articles published in the JIFS magazine. The article that was removed had the participation of 3 authors who were high school students at that time, including LKL at Reigate Vietnam High School (Hanoi), TNBL at Nguyen Sieu High School (Hanoi); NVL at Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted.

The group of authors also includes D.D.C students in the Faculty of Mathematics-Mechanics-Informatics and NCB students in the Faculty of Physics, studying together at the University of Natural Sciences (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) where Mr. Thao is working.

In a notice posted on April 19, JIFS journal said that the removed article contained one or more signs that raised doubts about "the authenticity of the research and peer review process behind this article".

The signs listed include: "Citation manipulation, including citations unrelated to the article; confusing, redundant passages and tortured phrases; possible unauthorized third-party involvement in the submission process; evidence of collusion between authors and reviewers that went undetected before publication; citations to articles that have been removed due to evidence of third-party interference and manipulation of the peer review process."

JIFS magazine did not specify any violations in the article by the Vietnamese authors. Thanh Nien also contacted Sage Publishing House, the unit that manages JIFS magazine and is also responsible for removing the article, to ask about the reason for removing the article by the Vietnamese authors, but has not received a response so far.

Associate Professor Le Quang Thao has conducted research with students many times.

According to Thanh Nien 's investigation, the recently removed article is not the first time Mr. Le Quang Thao has co-authored an article with a student. In the JIFS journal alone, Mr. Thao's group of authors published 3 more articles (except for the one that was removed).

In which, the article: "Deep learning strategy based on the FightNet model: An innovative solution to prevent school violence" has a group of authors including Mr. Thao, Ms. Diep, NCB and student N.D.HG from the High School for Gifted Students in Natural Sciences (Hanoi National University), student LKL (the author in the article that was just removed - PV). This article was published on August 2, 2023, one day before the newly removed article was published.

In the article: "Optimizing school toilet cleaning using wireless sensor networks and LSTM models", in addition to Mr. Thao, Ms. Diep, NCB, LKL, there are also 2 other students: NHMH from the High School for the Gifted in Natural Sciences (Hanoi National University) and NTHM from TH School (Hanoi). The group of authors also includes Dr. NDT, a researcher in Mr. Thao's unit; NHTD, a student at the University of Massachusetts (USA); and D.D.C.

This article was published on May 8, 2023, and is also the first article that Mr. Thao and Ms. Diep published in JIFS magazine.

In addition, Mr. Thao also published the article "Bbcry: A lightweight deep learning model for classifying infant cries" in the JIFS journal as the first author and corresponding author, no longer with Ms. Diep. This scientific article, which he co-authored with NCB, D.D.C and LKL, was published on August 5, 2023 - two days after the newly removed article was published.

Thus, in 2023 alone, LKL students have participated in publishing a total of 4 scientific articles in the same journal. According to the author page on ResearchGate, this student said that he enrolled in a university in Hanoi since September 2024 and is currently a student at this school. This means that LKL students published 4 articles when they were only in grade 10.

ILLUSTRATION: GEMINI

In addition to the JIFS journal, Mr. Thao is also the first author of a scientific article published in the journal Sensors and Actuators A: Physical , published by Elsevier. This article is titled "Monitoring and improving student concentration using deep learning and wireless sensor networks", published in January 2024.

The list of authors also includes many familiar names including NHMH students, NCB students and D.D.C students. The article also has two other authors who are high school students, including PXB and LPMH, studying at Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted.

According to data from publishers, Associate Professor Dr. Le Quang Thao has many other articles under the same name as high school students, such as "Deploying deep learning on edge devices to detect and reduce snoring" published in November 2024 with two authors who are students from Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted (Nghe An), High School for the Gifted in Natural Sciences (Hanoi); the article "Increasing the opportunity to reuse components on printed circuit boards using deep learning" has two authors who are both studying at Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, published in December 2024...

These articles were published in various journals.

On the other hand, NCB students and D.D.C students were awarded first prize by the University of Natural Sciences (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) in the school-level student scientific research conference in 2023. These two students have participated in publishing many scientific articles with Mr. Thao in various proceedings and journals, according to data from ResearchGate.

According to Thanh Nien , Mr. Thao achieved the Associate Professor title in Physics in 2024 and is currently a senior lecturer at the Physics Department of the University of Science (Vietnam National University, Hanoi). In his application for recognition as an Associate Professor, Mr. Thao said he had published 31 scientific articles, including 19 articles in prestigious international journals, with the main research directions being hardware circuit optimization, software engineering in adaptive control systems and data processing in intelligent embedded systems.

Previously, Associate Professor Tran Quoc Binh, Vice Principal of the University of Natural Sciences (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), told Thanh Nien that when the school learned that Associate Professor Thao had his article retracted by JIFS , it had reminded him. However, the retraction of the article was only an external sign, and the school would work specifically with Mr. Thao on the nature of the matter (why it was retracted, the quality of the article, etc.).

According to Thanh Nien 's investigation, last year Associate Professor Thao was indirectly warned by the school's leadership (through the leaders of relevant departments and offices). The reason was that Associate Professor Thao had shown some signs that experts considered "problematic" such as: asking to go abroad often for personal work but in fact taking students to participate in science and technology competitions, the number of international publications increased rapidly, the research topics were scattered...