Science fraud in Kyrgyzstan

By Gulnura Toralieva

Science in Kyrgyzstan will soon die, because of a corruptive system, lack of financial support and poor coverage of science, says Dmitry Milko, a scientist and member of the Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan.

The rush for fake degrees, and the corrupt schemes for obtaining them, has made Kyrgyz science be represented by people who do not know a school programme, according to Milko. “If you ask today’s people that have a doctorate in biology a question from elementary school, they will not know the answer because they bought their degree. Everyday I see white envelopes with money giving to people who can give you such a degree. It is a reason why the quantity of people with doctorates has raised more that three times since the collapse of the Soviet Union. One might think that it is because more people start to do science but it is a ridiculous suggestion”.

Most of the scientists in Kyrgyzstan have come to a very elderly age. They used to do science 25-30 years ago, and now they do not read books and magazines, only rest on the laurels, Milko says. “Very old academics create a very bad image of science in Kyrgyzstan. People think we do nothing and can not even move. Science is perceived as something stagnant and regressive and even dying. Most of them only think about their children and grandchildren to obtain degrees thankful to their authority.” Also, today’s scientists often plagiarise the works of scientists made many years ago.

Another problem is the lack of financing of science. The laboratories of the Academy of Science in Kyrgyzstan have no electronic microscope. “We haven’t done scientific expeditions for a long time in our laboratories. Our library is so poor that we can not afford to subscribe to scientific journals. We used to read them with three-year delays. Our technical equipment is outdated. Most of the scientists in the country work only for their ideas, not for money. Here we are all enthusiasts who do whatever they can do working in such conditions”.

The journalists are also not interested in reporting on science, and if they do, it is usually very unprofessional, Milko says. “The journalists have no skills to adapt scientific language; they mostly use press releases and report on events rather than analysing results of research we’ve made. Scientists give approximately five interviews per year. They think science is boring, not interesting and not important for the public. The journalists also neglect provinces and focus only on the capital,” Milko added.

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