Ethics watchdog opens new inquiry into Sinkevičius’ dissertation

Lithuania’s academic ethics watchdog has opened a new investigation into possible violations in the preparation of Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius’ doctoral dissertation, LRT reports.

The Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures decided to investigate on Friday after receiving a new complaint. The complaint was filed after ISM University of Management and Economics, where Sinkevičius defended his dissertation, completed its own investigation. The university gave him six months to correct the violations it found but did not recommend revoking his doctoral degree.

The complainant asked the ombudsperson to establish whether plagiarism and scientific dishonesty had occurred and, if serious breaches were found, to require the university to revoke its decision to award Sinkevičius the degree. The complainant said ISM’s ethics commission had recognised plagiarism and a breach of the requirement that the dissertation be the author’s own work, but had not properly assessed many of the textual similarities.

The ombudsperson’s office said the inquiry would examine possible procedural violations related to the implementation of academic ethics rules. The law provides 30 days to complete an investigation and issue a decision, but allows the deadline to be extended twice by up to four months if circumstances are complex or additional information is needed.

The complainant had previously contacted the ombudsperson, but the complaint was then referred to ISM. On October 30, the university’s ethics commission said it had found five instances of plagiarism in Sinkevičius’ 2015 dissertation on alcohol consumption, as well as two cases of textual similarity involving the use of another person’s text that it did not classify as plagiarism.

The commission said Sinkevičius had breached the academic integrity principle in the university’s ethics code and the dissertation independence requirement in its doctoral regulations. Sinkevičius has acknowledged the violations and said he would prepare a publicly available addendum correcting the dissertation.