It is more of a moral victory than anything else, but a victory in the end and in an opaque world that rarely gives itself the right to defeat. Researcher Jacobo Abelani condemned his dissertation director for harassing him at work and for using his work. Won. Since the complaint was filed at his university and not in court, he had no other outcome other than knowing that he was right and that the center had recognized him. He also managed to obtain a journal in which his article was published but signed to acknowledge that it was plagiarism and force him to be compensated.
Abelan started his dissertation at the Autonomous University of Madrid, directed by Michael Janoska, in 2014, under a contract of training of research staff in the field of sociology (FPI) by the Ministry of Science. Shortly after the dissertation started, its director offered to do a series of projects for the Ministry of Economy. Abelan accepted. “He put more pressure on me to do his projects than my own dissertation. You agree and remain silent due to pressure during publication. Documents And the necessary recognition in a research career, ”he says over the phone of a situation that many researchers have experienced firsthand.
The problem arose in 2018 when he expired his FPI contract – it has been four years, which the ministry believes he should take to write his dissertation – and he started collecting unemployment. “I continued his project so that I would not finish my dissertation,” Janoska promised, “it will benefit her in the future.” A few months later, too, a geographer at the University of Leipzig offered Abelan a job on another project, this time for a fee. “I accepted innocently, I could not refuse,” he admits.
It was time to collect in June. They had agreed on around € 1,400 for two months, Abelan says, but they paid € 490 “and in black”. It was superfluous for him and he complained. Janoszka offered him 977 euros for two months and the department sided with the director. Abelan asked for payment in the first project as well, but was neglected. Exploded. “I started acting.” Together with the CGT members, they arranged for his dissertation director to make a public act where he was exactly holding a conference on one of the projects in which Abelan was involved, but he was neither invited nor intended to do so. – says Abelani ..
When the article was published in 2020, he reported it to the Ethics Committee of the Autonomous University of Madrid, which finally agreed with him in a statement: “This bad practice has led the doctoral student to a very difficult process of controversy. “Serious academic and personal consequences,” they acknowledged in a document accessed by the newspaper.
Journal in which the project was published, Urban Studies, Also admitted academic plagiarism and forced authors to apologize and acknowledge authorship. Abelan finally received the 977 euros that his director offered him for these two projects. Neither Janoszka nor the research management team have received any sanctions, since the ethics committee is not a punitive body or a court. This newspaper contacted Michael Janoska to get his version of events, but received no response.
“It was our mistake because I should have gone to court, but I was afraid of the consequences,” Abelan suggests. Today, this project is condemned by the UAM before Labor Jurisdiction, as stated in the report that this newspaper had access to. In turn, the young researcher changed the head of the dissertation. He is still unemployed and graduates with the help of his family, but says he “practically started from scratch.” Eight years later.
Although a research career is difficult in itself and the Spanish scientific system is considered “unbelievable”, it adds to the “usual” – as Abellan and many other researchers say – labor exploitation, especially in the beginning. It is common for doctoral students to perform the tasks of their dissertation directors (teaching, proofreading, etc.) because of the power accumulated, as they perform both as a supervisor for the researcher and as an evaluator before the university.
This situation also happened to Sarah – a fictitious name – with her dissertation advisor. “I have done practically the whole project: I have written articles, fieldwork, research … and my name is last in the authors, always behind my directors,” he says. “My principal sent me assignments that he did not want to do. I took care of social networks and even helped to solve computer-related problems,” he laments. Sarah says she felt like an “instructed person” while on contract with the investigator.
Sarah filed a complaint with the Investigative Division. “But in the end it was as if you were the only one in the factory complaining to the owners of the company,” he explains. He has not appealed to the court either. “When you did that, there was nothing to go back to and I was shy about the dissertation.” “If you rebel, you risk never going to university, neither to your department nor to anyone else,” he laments. Remember who gets fired for joining a company.
Maria, a doctoral student in biology, had a conflict over workplace harassment. “I was constantly beaten,” he said. “Because of the hierarchy, they believe you are in their service and not working together.” “The clashes escalated when I got up. I think it also has a gender bias,” he criticizes. After this constant stress, Mary decided to change the director of the dissertation and started, like Abelan, from scratch.
While the existence of this practice has professional value, the sources consulted point to another greater one: mental health. article Prevalence and related factors among Spanish doctoral studentsThe University of Cambridge supports this view, noting that “PhD students have a higher risk of mental disorder than the rest of the population.” The study highlights the alarming plight of Spanish doctoral students.
Jacobo Abelani notes that his condition was “something very serious”. “Seeing that you are using the director for your own benefit is very negative and you are being treated badly,” he admits. “We work a lot with the intention that he will serve in the future, but without conviction. It is natural to work from ten to twelve hours a day,” Maria laments. “You look humiliated and devalued,” Sarah adds.
For Ermengol Gassiot, a university professor, as well as a dissertation director, this is a problem that has existed before. However, “now these cases are beginning to be revealed.” “It is clear that this condition causes serious mental problems,” he said. “There is no competent university questionnaire that reflects it at the end of the paper. He also sees a problem in the structure of the scientific system in Spain. “It all starts with a budget deficit. People in the position of dissertation director repeat what they lived through. Many times they work with minimal resources,” he criticizes.
Gassiot points out that the lack of technical and administrative staff shifts to young people preparing their dissertations. “Of course, the university system knows that there is a part of the scientific-academic system in the Spanish state that works thanks to the research of pre-doctoral students,” he said. “The hierarchy in which pre-doctoral students are the lowest echelon and perform their inappropriate tasks should be reduced. “Their activity is work according to the law, they can not do anything.”
Abelan explains that “the trap is that because you have an academic career, you seem to have to come to terms with these issues.” “When this happens, it means that the project is fundamentally poorly planned,” Maria thinks. “The worst thing about these situations is that it is not anecdotal and we see how it multiplies structurally. Studies in Spain contribute to these situations. Lack of resources leads to labor exploitation. There are people who perform exploitation without bad intentions.”
“Making a thesis should not be a traumatic process,” says Maria. “The Academy of Sciences is a machine for the exploitation of the people. This is a problem that needs more collective denunciation in the first place and a relationship with us. He who speaks is the one who condemns. But what happens to those who no longer want to know anything about a research career? ” – Asks the biologist.
For the Ministry of Universities, “Universities are responsible for preventing this type of practice and behavior.” Regarding the funding of research projects, they remind past governments: “The current situation has been present for many years, after the previous economic crisis, in which there were reductions that affected their work.” For their part, UAM emphasizes that they act “diligently when they are aware of possible misconduct in their research activities.” “These are processes that require in-depth and guaranteed investigation, because of the great importance they have for all people,” they told the newspaper.
By extending working hours and in projects that do not suit researchers, dissertation directors violate the workers ’statute in Royal Decree 103/2019, which regulates pre-doctoral contract, says labor lawyer Mireia Bazaga. “They have to appear in the social court and the labor inspectorate to pay for these hours,” the lawyer explained.
Pre-doctoral students are contractually recognized in the legal form of work and service, so there is an employment relationship. In fact, it took years of protest for these grants to shift from scholarships to contracts. However, many complain about the difficulty of condemning abusive practices because the tasks and rights that investigators have are not well defined in the contract. In addition, the dissertation lasts many times after the end of the contract, while unemployment accumulates, as in the case of Abelan. “This is a fraud of law that must end in an indefinite contract. Because the state of science is what it is, it is allowed,” condemns Ermengol Gassiot.
“Everything has a very broad trace of cooperation and participation in research tasks. There are no specific goals in the contract,” Sarah criticized. “This is a form of FPU and FPI contracts,” he explains. Yes, there are codes of good practice, but “measures are not taken in the case of violence at work,” he explains. “The labor inspectorate must have more staff to be able to act formally in such cases. It is insufficient. The inspectors must go beyond the evidence provided by the complainants,” the labor lawyer added.
Without the same, though in spirit, the Inspectorate has condemned several universities for using interns to hold administrative positions, which should be structured, according to Labor, although for the time being justice has not named their reason.
One of the big problems for Maria when it comes to condemning these cases is that doctoral students “still find it difficult to imagine themselves as workers and not as scholarship recipients.” As for the labor inspection complaints, he believes that “they need a lot of time and it is likely that they will do nothing because they are situations. Normal“But they are not.”
“Researchers are helpless,” said Ermengol Gassiot. “There is a power relationship between the director and the researcher, because the former has the ability to decide on the continuity of the latter,” he explains. “It’s very difficult to condemn your director when you need his signature to pursue a professional career,” Maria criticizes.
Source: El Diario
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
