In a major escalation of the European push to curb academic misconduct, Montenegro has passed a law to make plagiarism a criminal offence.
“Montenegro is taking the lead,” said Dennis Farrington, president of the board of the South East European University in North Macedonia and an adviser on the law. “This is the only such law that brings together different elements of academic integrity. It is a positive step in advancing quality and countering allegations of corruption, nepotism, etc.”
Although considered a serious problem in academia, plagiarism has generally not been treated as a criminal matter globally. In many jurisdictions, plagiarism is only illegal if it also involves copyright infringement. Montenegro’s move represents a significant escalation of the war on plagiarism in research.
The move was inspired by the Council of Europe Platform on Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in Education. Etined now hopes to roll out similar laws across the 47 member states of the international human rights organisation and well as Belarus, the Holy See government of the catholic church and Kazakhstan.
Farrington said Etined is now surveying its member states on their existing academic integrity legislation, with results due in November.
“It may lead to some form of international recommendation or convention, which obliges the 50 countries to adopt some law or policy dealing particularly with transnational issues, such as diploma mills and essay mills, improving security of recognition of qualifications, and the confidence each country has in the other systems,” he said.
Armenia and Kosovo have already agreed to refer to codes of conduct in draft laws on higher education. Officials and academics from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia have discussed taking similar steps.
Montenegro’s parliament passed its Law on Academic Integrity on 6 March. The law creates a criminal responsibility for plagiarism, self-plagiarism, failure to cite, and donating or buying authorship. It requires all students and scientists to declare that their work is their own when handing in a dissertation or taking up a new academic job.
Research institutions will have to annul any studies, degrees, awards or positions held by researchers found guilty of plagiarism and set up expert panels to review allegations of wrongdoing.
A state-level ethical committee appointed by the government will also police researchers. The first committee is expected to be set up within the next few months and will be the highest body for research integrity in the country. Anyone will be able to report wrongdoing, and the committee will have to rule within six months.
The test of the law will come in its implementation, said Zoran Todorović, a cardiologist at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, who also advised on the law’s drafting.
Filip Ivanović, executive director of the Center for Hellenic Studies in Podgorica, Montenegro, agrees. He cautions that it is not clear what criteria will be used to appoint the ethical committees and that the law does not go far enough in tackling types of academic misconduct unrelated to plagiarism.
Others are not convinced the law will make much difference in a country where academia is plagued with myriad challenges.
“There are many problems, from several decades of brain drain and an overly defensive and hierarchical academic culture,” said Radenka Krsmanović Whiffen, who received her degree in electronics from the University of Montenegro before embarking on a fellowship at Enea, the Italian agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development in Rome. “The entire work culture of the academic community needs to be changed.”
Vladimir Pešić, a biologist at the University of Montenegro, said the law is ironic, because some politicians in the country have committed plagiarism without suffering any consequences. “There is nothing left for scientists to do but to register as politicians and that way avoid possible responsibility,” he said.
A version of this article also appeared in Research Europe