HCMC university academics dismissed for plagiarism

Hoang Xuan Phuong and Vu Mong Lan, both part of the management staff at the private Van Lang university, were relieved of their positions after it was revealed that one of their published articles, titled "The relationship between PR specialists and journalists through the lens of communication ethics" was mostly plagiarized.

The dismissal was announced Tuesday by Vo Van Tuan, the university’s vice principal.

Phuong and Lan have confessed that their article was translated from a paper by Jim Macnamara, an Australian professor of Public Communication, published in the Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly in 2016.

The two academics said they had translated 80 percent of the original article without getting the author’s permission or citing his work as the source.

Macnamara has since accepted apologies offered by the duo, Tuan said.

Phuong and Lan’s article was originally presented at a conference in July 2019 at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) under the Vietnam National University in HCMC. A year later, the article was included in a book published by the university.

After several academic forums questioned the originality of the article late last year, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities requested the publisher to recall all the books and publish a corrected version, with the republishing expenses by Phuong and Lan.

Hoang Xuan Phuong worked for 10 years at the USSH's Journalism and Communications Department, before moving to Van Lang in October 2020, working as its deputy head of the Public Relations and Communications Department.

Vu Mong Lan was the deputy head of the Multimedia Communication division under Van Lang's Public Relations and Communications Department.