Vedomosti: the Russian Academy of Sciences decided to abolish the commission to combat pseudoscience

The commissions for combating pseudoscience and research falsification of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) will be reorganized. Their functions will be transferred to the RAS Expert Council. This was reported by Vedomosti with reference to the head of the council, Stepan Kalmykov.

As Kalmykov told journalists, the commissions “are not liquidated, but restructured”, while becoming subordinate to the Expert Council. For their part, a number of members of the commissions consider the reform more like a liquidation than a reorganization – in particular, Vasily Vlasov, a professor at the Department of Health Management and Economics at the Higher School of Economics and a member of the commission to combat pseudoscience, called what is happening.

Recall that the upcoming reorganization of the commissions to combat pseudoscience and falsification of research was reported in the media at the beginning of March this year – despite the fact that the decision, according to sources familiar with the situation, was made in December 2022. In the informal association of scientists “Club July 1” stated that the decision was made without discussion with the scientific community, and this is contrary to academic traditions.

“In addition, it must be recalled that the commissions made an extremely large contribution, in particular, to the fight against pseudoscience, stopping the projects of rogues, which saved the country’s budget hundreds of millions of rubles,” the 1st of July Club said. We add that supporters of homeopathy, which the majority of the scientific community considers pseudoscience, have already expressed their approval of the reform.