Dissernet

Dissernet () is a volunteer community network working to clean Russian science of plagiarism. The core activity of the community is conducting examinations of doctoral and habilitation (higher doctorate) theses defended in Russian scientific and educational institutions since the end of the 1990s, and making the results of such examinations known to as many people as possible. The community is composed of professional scientists working in various fields of science both in Russia and abroad, and also journalists, civil activists and volunteers.
Launched in early 2013, the project had by 2016 identified around 5,600 suspected plagiarists — focusing on officials in government and academia, and other member the country's elite — and released reports on around 1,300 of them. Russian media regularly report on Dissernet's findings, and the site has been credited with raising attention for the issue of academic fraud in the country. In a 2016 exposé, Dissernet showed that 1 in 9 members of the State Duma had obtained academic degrees with theses that were substantially plagiarized and likely ghostwritten.
Activities.
The objective of Dissernet's examinations is to detect gross and deliberate violations of the legally established rules for certification of scientific workers, as well as violations of the regulations for awarding academic degrees. Dissernet deems theses containing such violations to be fraudulent, and diplomas certifying the doctoral and higher doctoral degrees conferred after defending such theses to be illegal and subject to cancellation.
The key elements of the dissertation fraud detected in the course of Dissernet's analyses are as follows:
Within the active phase of Dissernet's activity, which started in January 2013, its members have published results of examinations of thesis defended by scores of well-known and powerful Russian politicians and public figures. As of the middle of the year 2014, more than 2000 completed expertises of Doctoral and higher doctoral theses in various directions and branches of science were contained in Dissernet database. Among the people attracting Dissernet's attention were deputies of the State Duma, members of the Federation Council, governors of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, high-ranking officials of executive authorities, heads of security and military services, etc.
Mass media coverage.
The work of the Dissernet community has gained much publicity and has been broadly covered in Russian and foreign mass media.
The result of the research performed by the Monitoring Center Public.Ru (more than 7500 federal and regional social and political and business printed matters, Internet mass media, news feeds of Press agencies, programs of central TV- and radio-channels have been analysed) showed that at 2013 year-end the word "Dissernet" was accepted as third by popularity neologism of the year, after the words "Euromaidan" and "titushky". Also the magazine "Russian Reporter" mentioned Dissernet's work among the most notable milestones of the year 2013, and the Internet edition "The Village" published an article about Dissernet in the dictionary "Summaries of 2013: main words and phrases of the outgoing year".
The magazine "Kommersant", while listing in its concluding issue the major cultural and social events of the 2013, devoted a separate article to Dissernet's struggle with falsifications and plagiarism.
Community manifest.
The "Dissernet Manifest", which was developed and agreed upon in June–July 2013, contains the declaration of the organizers and members about the basic objectives, tasks and principles of joint activity of the community members:
“Dissernet” is a networking community of experts, researchers and reporters seeking to unmask swindlers, forgers and liars. With their joint efforts based on the use of modern computer technologies and principles of networking division of labor, the community members oppose abusive practices, machinations and falsifications in the fields of scientific research and education, in particular in the process of defending theses and awarding academic degrees in Russia. The analytical work and disclosures of Dissernet equally cover various categories of Russian citizens:
The Dissernet members act on a voluntary basis, on their own initiative and without any outside pressure. The examinations, studies and publications of Dissernet are in strict compliance with the laws of the Russian Federation and do not violate any copyright or other rights. Dissernet is under no obligations to any state authorities, governmental
or administrative institutions, political associations or movements, commercial corporations or entities. Its members work in the community irrespective of their political, corporate or any other views, they do not pursue any commercial purposes, their efforts are not aimed at advertising or promotion of any product or trademark, and they do not set any other goals except the above-mentioned ones. Dissernet's expenses in connection with the fulfillment of its tasks are covered by means of voluntary donations by people sympathizing with its mission and sharing its views.
History.
The community was established in January 2013. The full Dissernet site, dissernet.org, as well as its reduced version, dissernet.ru, were opened on 23 September 2013.
On 28 February 2014, Sergey Parkhomenko received the "Golden Pen of Russia" award from the Russian Union of Journalists for the year 2013, recognizing his "Dissernet" activity in press and in Internet.
On 24 April 2014, the jury of the PolitProsvet Award 2014 conferred the Dissernet project with two awards, "For Honor and Dignity", and "People's Vote".
Some published examinations.
Examinations of doctoral theses.
A number of prominent doctoral theses examinations published by the Dissernet community which dealt with well-known and powerful figures on the Russian political and scientific scene:
Examinations of books.
Among examinations performed by Dissernet, there is a number of monographs. In particular, examinations of the following books have been published:
Activists.
The noted community activists, in particular, include: