Mañueco enthrones the rector of the 1000’s of self-citations in a solemn ceremony on the University of Salamanca | Science | EUROtoday

The native authorities applauded this Friday the proclamation as rector of the University of Salamanca of Juan Manuel Corchado, chargeable for a dishonest business that has allowed him to boast of being the fourth most cited Spanish scientist in his subject, due to dozens of profiles. false, 1000’s of self-citations and requiring his employees for years to quote him as much as 20 occasions in every of their research. The solemn ceremony befell within the legendary auditorium of the college, wherein the then rector, Miguel de Unamuno, proclaimed on October 12, 1936: “To win is not to convince.”

Standing with the rector's baton already in his fingers, dressed within the black cap and the puñetas, Corchado has acquired an extended ovation, led from the podium by the applause of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, president of the Junta de Castilla y León, and by the palms within the first row of the viewers of the mayor of Salamanca, Carlos García Carbayo, each from the Popular Party. “There will be nothing, absolutely nothing, that will stop us. I am sure that, in addition to winning, with our works we will also be able to convince,” said Corchado, paraphrasing Unamuno.

The rector, born in Salamanca 53 years in the past, now has the important thing to an annual funds of virtually 290 million euros. Corchado has already introduced that his intention is to construct a brand new campus on the previous Mercasalamanca land, subsequent to the railway station, with the assistance of the Salamanca City Council and the Junta de Castilla y León. A 12 months in the past, the council gave a municipal constructing price 700,000 euros in the identical space to the AIR Institute, a personal entity – created by Corchado himself – that may lead a 3.5 million euro challenge to advertise the digitalization of corporations within the area.

The political scientist Manuel Alcántara, professor emeritus on the University of Salamanca, speaks with full freedom as a result of he’s about to retire. “Corchado, if he had a minimum of responsibility, he should not have taken office as rector,” he believes. Alcántara remembers the unusual shock resignation of the earlier rector, Ricardo Rivero, on March 7. “There were not enough explanations and it was an act of irresponsibility. “Very likely there was an agreement with Corchado,” he assures. “Elections were called over the head of María José Rodríguez Conde, the replacement rector, who was forced to urgently call elections. She was boycotted to such an extent that she had to resign six days later. They did not allow an alternative candidacy to be set up,” he denounces.

Corchado ended up working alone within the elections for rector on May 7 and acquired the assist of 6.5% of the 33,000 college college students who have been known as to vote, with half of the college voting clean in protest. “Corchado is an unedifying figure. He worries me about the prestige of the University of Salamanca,” warns Alcántara, promoter of the establishment's Ibero-American Institute. On May 3, the Ministry of Science requested a report on Corchado from the Spanish Research Ethics Committee, following the revelations about his dishonest revealed by this newspaper. The Springer Nature publishing home additionally investigates the works of the professor and his collaborators, who go as far as to dedicate greater than 90% of the references of their publications to Corchado, a trick that causes the professor to rise within the ranks. rankings worldwide.

The president of the Junta de Castilla y León has hugged Corchado. “It is an honor for me to participate in this inauguration ceremony. Congratulations, rector. Congratulations, dear Juan Manuel,” Fernández Mañueco declared in the course of the ceremony. “I congratulate you for having achieved the support of the university community at the polls, because it is the polls that have given you the possibility of being appointed as rector,” he emphasised. “If we continue working together, no one is going to stop us: all of us together,” the president urged these current. At the ceremony, Bertha Gutiérrez, president of the establishment's Research Ethics Committee, additionally took workplace as one in every of its vice-rectors.

The enthronement of the brand new rector has prompted astonishment within the educational neighborhood, in line with Ismael Mingarro, dean of the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the University of Valencia. “The appointment of Professor Corchado is a very serious event for the Spanish university, not only with regard to our international image, but also, and I think it is more serious, because of the message we are sending to our students: that anything goes for promote yourself personally,” he factors out. “We are devaluing the credibility of the university system. In my opinion, both the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities should have audited the curriculum of the candidate for rector, since he is going to be the image of the University of Salamanca and, therefore, extension, of the rest of the Spanish public universities,” provides Mingarro.

In his speech, the brand new rector recalled his first steps within the establishment as an 18-year-old scholar, his Erasmus scholarship and his return as a professor, a second wherein his voice broke, as he thanked his educational sponsors. . “I have come this far because I have always planned everything in advance,” he stated. That is exactly one of many criticisms of his critics. The professor from Salamanca appeared to know that the rector Ricardo Rivero was going to resign unexpectedly on March 7, as a result of on February 27 the dean of the Faculty of Economics, Jesús Galende, had known as his professors to a gathering wherein Corchado would clarify to them “his future candidacy for rector,” as he wrote in an electronic mail message to which this newspaper has had entry. In idea, the elections have been two years away.

“I am convinced that I will be a rector capable of enjoying every day and making the university community enjoy,” proclaimed Corchado, who the day earlier than presided over the inauguration of his establishment's Fraud Prevention Conference. “The University of Salamanca deserves ambition and a future. We already have the tradition. “It is our time,” he continued. “University offers you a path that allows you to go far.”

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