Skaistė pledges cooperation in review of dissertation ethics complaint

Conservative MP Gintarė Skaistė says she trusts institutions to objectively assess a complaint concerning her doctoral dissertation and will cooperate with its examination, LRT reported.

“It is important to me that all the questions raised in the complaint are assessed professionally and objectively. I will provide the university with all the necessary information and cooperate in examining the complaint. I trust the institutions’ ability to conduct this assessment objectively,” Skaistė told the Baltic News Service.

Skaistė is currently outside Lithuania and said she learned about the situation from publicly available information. She said her dissertation had been publicly accessible since it was defended.

On August 10, the Academic Ethics and Procedures Controller’s Office received a complaint concerning possible breaches of academic ethics in the preparation of Skaistė’s doctoral dissertation. The complaint raises questions about the originality of the text, inconsistencies in calculations and shortcomings in the presentation of results.

The office said it had referred the complaint to Mykolas Romeris University, or MRU, for examination under the self-regulation procedure. After examining the complaint, the university will have to inform the office of its decision. The office would assess the complaint if its author disagreed with the university’s decision and appealed to it.

According to the office, Skaistė’s dissertation, titled “A model for assessing the impact of institutional systems on venture capital investments,” was prepared at MRU and defended on January 28, 2016.

MRU Vice-Rector Saulius Spurga confirmed to the Baltic News Service that the university had received material from the Academic Ethics and Procedures Controller’s Office concerning Skaistė’s dissertation, but did not comment further.