Promote basic scientific research

In recent years, basic research in our country has been paid attention to, reflected in financial investment, strengthening facilities and people. However, the results are not yet equivalent to the potential and development requirements. This situation is caused by many reasons, including the reasons for implementation and evaluation of research projects which are still inadequate.

Basic research is especially important for the development and development of wisdom for every human being and society as a whole. At the same time it is the foundation for the development of science and technology - a force directly promoting production development. Being aware of this, in recent years, the Party and the State have been interested in investing to promote this activity and we have achieved encouraging results.

However, compared to the requirements, it is still very modest. In order to promote the development of basic research, we need to solve many problems, in which special attention should be paid to creating the environment and motivation for scientists. In order to do that, in our opinion, we must first overcome some shortcomings in assessing scientists - the most important resource for developing basic research of the country.

Firstly , quoting is also an important indicator. Currently, we are focusing more on the publication of studies in the journals published by Institute Scientific Information (ISI), but not yet cited by the articles. However, for developed countries, this index is very important. For many scientists, quoting is more meaningful than the article.

Genetic machine at the key laboratory (Agricultural Genetics Institute).- (Photo: ND)

In high energy physics, besides articles there is always a quote. Items with 50 or more citations added TOPCITE = 50+ (more than 50 citations), 100+, 250+, 500+, 1000+. In the whole industry there are only about 150 articles with more than 1,000 citations and the authors of these articles feel very honored. It must also be noted that there is a huge difference in the quality and impact Factor in ISI journals, which is an indicator of the journal's citation. It can be said that journals cited from 1 or more are reputable magazines, and below 0.3 are weak journals. However, it is very difficult to be on ISI's list of journals.

Second , reward for international ISI articles. The topics that have many articles published in prestigious international journals sometimes have smaller funding than topics with much less published volume. The issue of encouragement published in prestigious international journals has been raised at many workshops and the majority of the opinions suggest that 10 to 30% of Funds for basic research should be reserved for national articles. International ISI.

Thirdly , properly evaluate and facilitate scientists. One of the shortcomings in management over the past time is that we are too focused on equipment but neglect to take care of people who do serious science. There are devices we have to buy millions of dollars but then back to cover them. Modern machines themselves cannot give the expected results. It requires users to be knowledgeable to make meaningful research. The introduction of topics and problems also requires scientists to be qualified and updated. A good scientist can set a problem that is at the same level as his device and still produce results of scientific value. Professor PD (before retiring, working at the European Center for Nuclear Research - CERN) used expired devices (waste) only to guide students, measuring Mion currents in the rain In Hanoi, the results are published in very prestigious magazines like Nuclear Physics B.

Due to history, some people are " famous " for professors and academics and hold this position but are in fact very weak in scientific research. The reason for this is because of information about scientists and how to evaluate scientific works as well as scientists who do not follow international standards. Or in other words, our assessment is still inadequate. This is one of the reasons that inhibits the development of the country's science. Meanwhile, there are people who work hard, make real contributions to world science, then stay in the country, almost nobody knows. Therefore, if we want to raise the level of our country's science, there is no other way to appreciate and create favorable working conditions for good scientists. But how to find good scientists? The answer is to regularly build and update a database of scientists in each field along with their list of scientific works. Of course, doing this is not simple, but this is what needs to be done and done as soon as possible.

Fourth , international cooperation and cooperation. In developed countries, in addition to good physical conditions, scientists also have another advantage that in developing countries does not have. It is a very effective international cooperation and cooperation. To start a new research direction, our scientists have to find out for themselves so it takes a lot of time, and in the developed countries, they do this very quickly. With a large research budget, they can invite good experts in that field and abroad to lecture, even bring their skills to help. Therefore, the implementation of new ideas is made faster.

Fifth , need to change the way the topic is evaluated. Perhaps the evaluation of the topic that we apply today will create a scratch with research results, scratch with good and bad. The status of topics that can only be published in the country (in magazines or reports at domestic conferences) can also be evaluated well, not the norm, but sometimes it increases the useless topics. . It must be said that, it is a research topic of research, it must be published in prestigious international journals (with a Impact Factor 1), it will be valid.

In the acceptance committees, those who do not do the work of people (in some specialized field) are common in our country, leading to many subjective and inaccurate assessments. Therefore, it is necessary to overcome this situation soon. So who needs to participate in the Council? As mentioned earlier, it must be qualified scientists working actively in the field of assessment, not those with full titles but not experts in that field. To be objective, we can invite foreign scientists to participate in evaluating topics.

HOANG NGOC LONG