Statement on the Commission’s conclusions on plagiarism allegations in Banská Bystrica

Comenius University's management body and the chairman of the Academic Senate of Comenius University issued a statement on January 17, 2019 on the Commission’s conclusions on the plagiarism allegations in Banská Bystrica.

18. 01. 2019 14.02 hod.
By: CU Public Relations Office

The Commission of the Matej Bel University Academic Senate in Banská Bystrica created to investigate plagiarism allegations of doctoral dissertations at UMB, analyzed the thesis of the Parliament Speaker Andrej Danko, as well. The report issued by the Commission came to the conclusion that Andrej Danko committed a gross violation of ethical standards for authors and a large part of his work was compiled from works of several other authors without citing the sources. In other words, the vast majority of his work was copied from other authors without admitting to doing so.

Regardless of whether this method is to be called plagiarism, it is obvious that Andrej Danko did not follow the fundamental ethical rules that have been in place in the academic environment for hundreds of years. By downplaying and insisting on the legitimacy of his method he is ridiculing academic principles, disrespecting our work and instead of setting an example of virtue and courage for our students – as should be expected from one of the senior government officials – he became an example worthy of contempt. And this is unacceptable for everyone who takes their academic and scientific vocations seriously.

This statement naturally applies to all types of theses written in the academic environment and Comenius University will always insist on unconditional compliance with professional and ethical standards of research and publication activities.