Kumba Digdowiseiso, the dean of the economics and business faculty at Universitas Nasional in Jakarta, Indonesia, resigned on Thursday after a firestorm of criticism over the past week.
The move, reported widely in the Indonesian media, came eight days after Retraction Watch reported that researchers at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu alleged that Digdowiseiso had added dozens of their colleagues’ names to papers without their permission.
“This resignation is a form of my academic responsibility to the Chancellor of Unas and the academic community so as not to burden the campus in carrying out investigations into the problems I am facing,” Digdowiseiso told Kompas yesterday.
Digdowiseiso “denied the accusation of including his name in his scientific publication, calling it baseless,” Kompas reported. “In fact, he considered, there was an impression of bringing down his good name and character assassination, aka destroying his reputation.”
As we reported last week:
Digdowiseiso has published at least 160 papers in 2024 alone, according to his Google Scholar profile, which casts a wider net for publications than other indexing services such as Web of Science.
The dean had visited the Malaysian university last year, according to the deputy dean of Academic and Student Affairs, Azwadi Ali. Ali said Digdowiseiso met with management to discuss student mobility, guest lectures and potential research collaboration. “But we did not know that this might happen,” Ali said.
Digdowiseiso told Retraction Watch:
In connection with the news issued by retractionwatch.com on April 11 2024, which in my opinion is one-sided information and there is no determination as to whether what has been accused of me has been proven to be true or false, this news has made the public in Indonesia, the alma mater where I work and my family feel the consequences. Namely, getting accusations, the perception that I had made a very big academic mistake. Therefore, regarding this matter, I, who was not given the opportunity to explain, chose to take intellectual responsibility, namely resigning from my academic position.
We note that Digdowiseiso was given the chance to respond to the allegations before our April 11 post.
He continued:
The choice to withdraw was a choice of conscience that I carried out so that what was accused of me did not involve other people. And as a citizen, academician, and head of the family, I will fight to restore the beliefs that I believe to be true by proving that what I have been accused of has not been proven.
I will go through a legitimate and legal process to fight for this belief. In relation to this issue, a Fact Finding Team has been formed consisting of several UNAS Internal Professors and Independent Professors from other Universities in Indonesia to find the facts and truth regarding the things that have been accused of me. And, I hope this team can be a “place” for me to fight for my rights fairly.
I also hope that retractionwatch.com will be more professional, objective and fair in its reporting, even though this has made me a victim who has to bear the consequences of this reporting.I really believe that all parties will put forward an objective and rational attitude towards this issue. Please note that in the days since this matter emerged in public, I have great respect for the ongoing internal investigation process even though I am aware that every moment that passes will compromise my good name in the media. Therefore, I need to convey this statement to protect the feelings of my wife, my two children who are at school, and my parents.
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He not resigned as academician, just resign as dean
He should sue the lecturer at UMT for assassinating his good name.
The lecturer at UMT should discuss with him before sharing it with the third party.
Did Digdowiseiso add people’s names to papers without their prior consent? If so, there is no “good name” to be assassinated by the UMT people, Digdowiseiso did that already all by himself.
Why should the affected people at UMT (plural) discuss it with him? They never even met him, he is someone unknown to them. And yet they suddenly find themselves to be co-authors on papers they have never even seen.
Telling people about his appalling misconduct is not “character assassination”, it is the natural result of his ethically bankrupt behaviour. UMT under no circumstances has a responsibility to shelter this man from the consequences of his actions. Hell, you could argue that covering up for him and enabling him to continue to behave so poorly would in and of itself be unethical.
If he’s innocent of the behaviour in question, that’s one thing – but it seems pretty unlikely that multiple people would be dishonestly claiming not to have worked on a journal article
Good luck suing when the misconduct is already easily visible and provable in the public record, Kumba.
Teuku do you understand that UMT and their lecturers are the victims here, not the other way around? Stop your victim blaming.
Kumba’s unauthorized PUBLIC use of UMT (university) and those lecturers (individuals) names without consent and knowledge in the bylines of those journals in the websites, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and others, has PUBLICLY damaged their good names, reputations and emotions. Therefore, it is fair that UMT lecturers also clarify and disclaim this issue in PUBLIC. Whether you like it or not, RW is arguably the best channel to report this issue.
Kumba said that his “family feel the consequences” – he should not play victim to the circumstances that he himself created! What about the true victims then, those 24 UMT lecturer’s families, students and their university stakeholders?
And if you want to talk about legal action, then it is 100% clear that UMT and all those 24 affected lecturers are the ones that have the right to sue him. In the original RW report, UMT legal advisor Dr. Mokhtar has asked Kumba to remove all UMT lecturers names from his papers; a simple Google search shows that she is also one of his victims!
See the following page (Dr. Mokhtar’s name is still there at this time of writing, 21 April 2024):
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378325119_The_Influence_of_Participative_Leadership_Style_Physical_Work_Environment_and_Work_Discipline_on_the_Performance_of_Employees_at_the_Kramat_Jati_Religious_Affairs_Office_East_Jakarta
And in the journal website, Dr. Mokhtar is still in the license info! Keep in mind, she is just one of 24 Kumba’s victims.
Kumba should have just publicly admitted his academic misconduct of using those UMT names without consent, remove all their names completely, retract those articles, and publicly apologized to UMT and all those lecturers. Instead, he decides to blatantly lie in the news – falsely claimed foul and “character assassination”, which just make things worse for himself.
Waiting for the investigation, BTW what happen in your country when facing any case like this?
I don’t mind if someone includes me in their papers. Go ahead with that ! I am terribly bored to write everything from the first to last word in my papers. Why did the included authors complain? Did he use the names of the editors to get his papers published? How did he manage to publish 160 papers in 2024 which just started? Does anyone read that many papers per year? Everyone with papers more than 10 per year should be carefully checked on his contribution