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Rafael Luque has been suspended without pay for 13 years, as revealed and confirmed by the Spanish University of Cordoba. The institution accuses him of having worked at King Saud University, the first Saudi university, and the Peoples’ Friendship University in Moscow, even though he was a full-time teacher in Cordoba.

You should know that more than 10 years ago, Saudi universities embarked on a rigorous program of hiring foreign scholars who were chosen because they are often cited. This program has been detected in 2011 by the magazine science. “Most often cited” refers to the fact that there are research rankings in the scientific community according to the number of times other researchers are cited. These rankings can be used to highlight the standing of researchers and their universities, which can translate to more funding, both public and private.

For example, explain scienceKing Abdulaziz University offered researchers about $ 76,000 annually, and the only condition is to spend one week annually on campus and add the name of the Saudi University as a second member, whenever the author signs or participates in research.

44-year-old Raphael Locke has put his name to some 700 studies, most of them in the field of green chemistry. from this figure, Google Scholar 60 since the beginning of 2023, an average of two every three days. Which contributes to the fact that he is cited more often than the average scientist…

Responding to his comment, he told the Spanish daily El Pais: “Without me, the University of Córdoba would lose 300 places” in the ranking of frequently cited universities. “They shot themselves in the foot.” He attributes his comment to “sheer jealousy”.

This is not the first time such transgressions have drawn criticism Pressure to publish Whenever possible, it burdens researchers—the famous “publish or die.” Calls for reforms have been made in recent years. in report from new worldIn 2022, everyone seemed to agree that progress had been made in responding to “red flags” — but there was still a long way to go.

The chemist admitted that, since December, he has been using ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence application, to “polish” his texts. “The past few months have been very productive, because these are articles that used to take two or three days, and now they are ready in one day.”