Office news

In September 2020, Erasmus+ funded project “Bridging Integrity in Higher Education, Business and Society“ (Bridge) was launched, and the Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures is one of the partner organisations in it. The main goal of this project is to create a bridge of intersectoral integrity by deepening the understanding of […]

On the 15th of December, the Ombudswoman for Academic Ethics and Procedures dr. Loreta Tauginienė participated in the international conference ”Implementation of quality distance education” organised by the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education. At the conference, she presented the results of the Office’s study “Challenges of Distance Education for Academic Ethics during the […]

On the 10th of December, the world commemorates International Human Rights Day, reminding of the importance of human rights in any society. Ensuring human rights in research is a necessity that must be realized through research (including interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral) and publication of its results in a variety of ways and forms. Assessing compliance with […]

By the ruling of the 3rd of December 2020, the Constitutional Court has recognised that the right granted to the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures by the Item 2 of Paragraph 11 of Article 17 of the Law on Science and Studies to oblige to revoke a decision to award a higher education qualification […]

On the 14th of October, the Office organised an annual conference for the academic community “Ethics in Academic Environment 2020”. This event was held to mark the Global Ethics Day and attended by 70 participants from 30 institutions. At the beginning of the conference, the participants saw a short performance “Winds of Change” staging common […]

On the 25th of September, the Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures participated in the science festival “Researchers’ Night”. The event of the Office was aimed at doctoral students from various fields of science. They were invited to discuss on academic ethics. The participants from six research and higher education institutions saw […]

On the 24th of September, UNESCO organized an Eastern European Regional Consultation on the Recommendation on Open Science. It was attended by a wide range of stakeholders from Eastern Europe, including academia (especially library staff), policy makers and other representatives. About 150 participants participated in the Regional Consultation. During the Regional Consultation, the stakeholders shared […]

For the second year in a row, the Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures participated in the science festival “Spaceship Earth”. The festival, first held in 2004, has already become the largest science communication event in Lithuania. This year, its program included as many as 350 events. The event of the Office […]

On the 25th of August 2020, revised Recommendations on the Adaptation and Implementation of Academic Ethics Codes by Research and Higher Education Institutions (Recommendations) based on the Guidelines for an Institutional Code of Ethics in Higher Education by the International Association of Universities and the Magna Charta Observatory, the national legislation and the proposals by […]

Dear academia,   As every year, we welcome autumn with Science and Knowledge Day. New goals, new tasks and new challenges lie ahead. In the presence of a global pandemic, we will face even more challenges this academic year, but by acting in togetherness, responsibly, honestly, and respectfully, we will undoubtedly overcome them. Courage, creativity, […]

The Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures (Office) presents the results of the survey “Responsible Research Barometer 2020” on the experience and situations of researchers working in Lithuanian research and higher education institutions in the field of research and publication ethics. The aim of the survey was to overview the current practice […]

Although the Seimas’ resolution of establishment of the Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures was adopted in 2011, the Office began to function at full extent in 2013. Today the Office celebrates its seventh birthday. The team of the Office is composed of nine employees and, while supervising the embedding of provisions […]

In 2017, UNESCO issued the revised Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers covering all principles of Responsible Research: ethics, open science, STEM education, public engagement, and gender equality. 195 countries signed up the treaty, among them also Lithuania. The treaty obliges each country to evaluate its performance related to the principles of Recommendation every four […]

The Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures received financial support from the Nordic-Baltic Mobility and Networking Programme for Public Administration. The grant will allow three employees to make two short-term working visits abroad. The staff of the Office will take part in interinstitutional exchanges of knowledge and experience in Finnish National Board […]

The ombudsperson for academic ethics and procedures Loreta Tauginienė became a member of the Council of Europe Platform for Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in Education (ETINED). Senior specialist (senior analyst) Eglė Ozolinčiūtė has been appointed as her deputy. The ETINED is a network of specialists appointed by member states of the Council of Europe. The […]

On the 19th of May, the ombudswoman Loreta Tauginienė and the senior specialist of the Office Kamilė Kapočiūtė participated in a virtual meeting with the academic community of the Lithuanian Sports University (LSU). Some 60 members of LSU academic community participated in the meeting. The ombudswoman presented them the concepts of research integrity and publication […]

On the 13th -14th of May, the Office organised remote training on research ethics. The first training on peculiarities of ethical scientific supervision was intended for doctoral students’ supervisors. The training emphasized that the ethical dilemmas arising during doctoral supervision must be solved together with the heads of the department and the institution. It was […]

On the 17th-19th of April, the Office’s senior specialists Kamilė Kapočiūtė, Eglė Ozolinčiūtė and Gintarė Židonė participated in the 6th International Conference Plagiarism across Europe and Beyond 2020, remotely held in Dubai. The main topic of the conference was plagiarism, its detection methods and prevention. At the conference, researchers, private business sector, public authorities and […]

On the 16th of April, the European Network of Research Integrity Offices (ENRIO) released a statement urging the academic community to keep in mind principles of research ethics. ENRIO emphasizes that research integrity remains crucial in the COVID-19 pandemic, given the need for evidence-based research conclusions. The Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and […]

On the 26–27 of March, a remote meeting of the European Network of Research Integrity Offices (ENRIO) was held. It was attended by representatives from Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Luxembourg, and other countries. Ethics in social sciences […]

In 2019–2020, the Office initiated the review of the Recommendations for adoption, implementation, and supervision of academic ethics codes of research and higher education institutions (HEIs) published in 2015 and of the documents regulating the activities of academic ethics committees, approved by HEIs, and provided the academic community with the research review “Changes in Regulation […]

On February 20-22, the Ombudswoman for Academic Ethics and Procedures Loreta Tauginienė and Senior Specialist (Analyst) Gintarė Židonė participated in the 3rd International Conference organised by REWARD and EQUATOR networks. The aim of the Conference was to discuss challenges of scientific activities and their solutions with various stakeholders (e.g. research funding organisations, publishers, editors of […]

On the 9th of January, the Ombudswoman for Academic Ethics and Procedures Loreta Tauginienė participated in the international winter school organised by the Society of Doctoral Students of Mykolas Romeris University. She presented the concepts of research ethics, scientific integrity, and publication ethics, introduced with manifestations of unethical research related to authorship, plagiarism, performance of […]

In December 2019, Lithuanian Union of Students (Lietuvos Studentų Sąjunga, LSS) shared the results of the study “Index of Academic Integrity 2019”. The Office also contributed to this study by helping LSS to improve the questionnaire in Spring 2019. By calculating the index of academic integrity, LSS seeks to evaluate the prevalence of academic malpractices […]

On the 13th of December, the Government Strategic Analysis Center hosted a seminar for doctoral supervisors “Research Ethics for Supervisors” (in English) organized by the Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures. In the first part of the seminar it’s lecturer PhD Sonja Bjelobaba (Uppsala University, Sweden) spoke not only about the significance […]

On the 6th of December, the Ombudswoman for Academic Ethics and Procedures Loreta Tauginienė met with representatives of the ethics commissions of six colleges to discuss opportunities for collaboration in promoting ethical behaviour of the academic community. At the meeting, the representatives of ethics commissions of the colleges were interested in the possibilities of improving […]

In order to strengthen interinstitutional cooperation, on the 2nd of December, the Ombudswoman for Academic Ethics and Procedures Loreta Tauginienė met with the employees of the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education. At the meeting, the Ombudswoman presented the study results about the situation of academic ethics in Lithuanian research and higher education, peculiarities […]

The 3rd plenary session of the Council of Europe Platform on Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in Education (ETINED) was held in Prague on 28-29 of November. It was attended by representatives from almost 30 European countries. Lithuania was represented by the Head of the Legal and General Affairs Division of the Centre for Quality Assessment […]

The Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures, Mrs. Loreta Tauginienė, participated in the 9th World Science Forum “Science, Ethics and Responsibility” held in Budapest on 20-23 of November. It was organized by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences together with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), The International Council for Science (ISCU) and […]

On the 8th of November at the Faculty of Law of Vytautas Magnus University, the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures, Mrs. Loreta Tauginienė, met with the representatives of ethics commissions of seven universities to discuss cooperation possibilities in handling allegations of academic ethics while maintaining the implementation of the activity principles of the Ombudsperson […]

On the 8th of November, the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures, Mrs. Loreta Tauginienė, met with the academic community of Kaunas University of Technology. At the meeting, the Ombudsperson acquainted the participants with certain aspects of publication ethics – authorship, conflict of interest, also discussed the role of the thesis / research supervisor and […]

Global Ethics Day is celebrated on the 16th of October this year. On this day higher education institutions usually invite to draw attention to the contract cheating, the sorest problem of academic ethics in the study process today. On this occasion, the Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures invites the academic community […]

On 30 September 2019, the Senior Specialists of the Office Mindaugas Židonis and Kamilė Kapočiūtė introduced to the academia the conditions of use and functionality of the PlagScan text-matching software.

On 25 September, the Office of Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures became a member of the European Network of Research Integrity Offices (ENRIO) in Krakow.

On 15 October 2019, the Office will hold the conference “Ethics in Academic Environment 2019” to celebrate the Global Ethics Day.

For the first time, the Office of Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures joined the science festival “Spaceship Earth”, which has been held since 2004.

On 13 August, the Ombudswoman for Academic Ethics and Procedures Loreta Tauginienė delivered a presentation on the challenges of ensuring research ethics by involving citizens in research as peer researchers.

On 6 August, the Ombudswoman for Academic Ethics and Procedures Loreta Tauginienė took part at the COST information day organized by the Research Council of Lithuania.

Congratulations on the Day of Science and Knowledge!

On 23 August, the opening of the 20th assembly of the Lithuanian National Union of Students Union (LSS) was held at Klaipėda University to discuss the future of higher education.

On 22 August, the Ombudswoman Loreta Tauginienė presented to the participants of the conference “Being a human among human beings” held by the Language Centre of State Institutions the insights related to ethical infrastructure in 32 gymnasiums of Vilnius.

Today, the Office celebrates its sixth birthday.

Mykolas Romeris University (MRU), Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and the Office of Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures of the Republic of Lithuania invite to take part in the event “Perspectives of Citizen Science in Lithuania”.

On 12 July, the Ombudswoman for Academic Ethics and Procedures Loreta Tauginienė and the Senior Specialist Gintarė Židonė participated in off-site training of coordinators of the Student Representation of Vilnius University.

On 20–21 of June, the Adviser Giedrė Litvinaitytė attended the conference held by the International Whistleblowing Research Network in Utrecht (the Kingdom of the Netherlands).

The Ombudswoman Loreta Tauginienė and the Senior Specialists Regimantas Juras and Gintarė Židonė became members of ENERI (European Network of Research Ethics and Research Integrity) e-community network.

On 26 June, a discussion on the role of such public institutions as the Office, the Lithuanian Bioethics Committee and the Research Council of Lithuania in enhancing the focus of academia on research ethics was held at the Research Council of Lithuania.

On 19–21 June, the Ombudswoman for Academic Ethics and Procedures Loreta Tauginienė and the Senior Specialists Kamilė Kapočiūtė and Regimantas Juras took part in the 5th International Conference “Plagiarism Across Europe and Beyond” and the 3rd International Conference  “Shaping Ethics in Academia and Society”.

The seminar ”Avoiding plagiarism – what can librarians do?” hosted by the Office was held at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

On June 2–5, the Ombudswoman for Academic Ethics and Procedures Loreta Tauginienė and the Senior Adviser Kristina Pažusytė participated in the 6th World Conference on Research Integrity, WCRI 2019.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Lithuania, the Research Council of Lithuania and the Office of Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures of the Republic of Lithuania will hold an information seminar “Enhancing the Role of Research Ethics”.

In the meeting with academic community of Šiauliai University the Ombudswoman Loreta Tauginienė presented the initiatives of preventive measures of unethical behaviour to the academic community.

Amendments to the General Rules for Competitive Financing of Research and Dissemination Projects of the Research Council of Lithuania (the Rules) took effect on 6 April of this year.

The Seimas adopted amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses revising administrative liability for submitting works created by ghost-writers to higher education and research institutions as own research or study papers, and the hand-over of written papers submitted by other persons as their own research or study papers.

Supporting the initiative of the Lithuanian National Union of Students (the LSS) to assess the prevalence of academic dishonesty in Lithuanian research and higher education institutions and to identify causes of academic dishonesty, this year the Office has assisted the LSS in conducting a research “Academic Integrity Index”.

Last week, the Ombudswoman Loreta Tauginienė presented areas of operations of the Office and its achievements at a meeting of the European Network of Research Integrity Offices (ENRIO) held in Prague.

Representatives of the Office participated in the discussion “Technological Development and Ethical Aspects” held by the Young Academy of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Law of Vilnius University.

Article 123 of the Code of Administrative Transgressions establishes a provision regarding unlawful purchase, sale and submission of research works to higher education and research institutions.

On 8 and 21 February, the Ombudswoman Loreta Tauginienė met with members of the Lithuanian University Rectors’ Conference and the Lithuanian University College Conference of Directors.

The Lithuanian University Rectors’ Conference (LURK) approved the Guidelines for Publication Ethics drafted by the temporary working group for academic integrity and ethics of the LURK at the meeting held on 8 February.

The Ombudswoman Loreta Tauginienė and employees of the Office met with Eigirdas Sarkanas, President of the Lithuanian National Union of Students (LSS) and Viktorija Žilinskaitė, Vice-President of the LSS.

The Ombudsperson and employees of the Office met with Deputy Director of the Centre of Information Technologies in Education (CITE) and the Head of Department of Registers of Pupils, Students and Teachers.