Plagiarism shock to the country's prime minister! '5 cases were detected, 6 months were given'

According to Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), the ethics commission of the ISM University of Management and Economics examined the doctoral thesis on alcohol consumption defended by Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius in 2015.

During the review, the commission detected 5 cases of plagiarism and 2 inappropriate use of texts that were not considered plagiarism. The commission concluded that the violations violated the university's principles of academic integrity and requirements for the independent conduct of doctoral research.

Concluding that taking steps to immediately cancel the doctoral degree would be a disproportionate penalty, the commission did not detect any violations in the evaluation or defense of the thesis.

The commission recommended that the necessary corrections and source citations be determined in the thesis and shared with the public, and that this process be completed within 60 days. Following the approval of these regulations, Sinkevicius will be given 6 months to correct his thesis.

The corrected thesis will be reviewed by the doctoral committee and published with the correction supplement. If Sinkevicius refuses to correct the deficiencies within the specified period, the commission may recommend that the process for the cancellation of the doctoral degree be initiated.

In his statement to the BNS news agency, Sinkevicius stated that he would accept the findings of the commission and prepare the necessary corrections, adding: "I did the data analysis myself and created the results myself. Therefore, I never doubted my work, but I do not object to the violations detected."

Dalius Misiunas, Rector of ISM University of Management and Economics, also emphasized that the commission carried out a comprehensive and professional investigation in accordance with the principles of impartiality and objectivity.

The investigation into Sinkevicius's doctoral thesis was initiated following allegations of plagiarism that emerged in July.