Government Investigates Case of Fabricating Research of Indonesian Citizens at ISPPD Conference

Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Mendiktisaintek) Brian Yuliarto delivers a presentation while attending a working meeting with Commission X of the DPR/ANTARA FOTO/Rivan Awal Lingga/YU

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Kemdiktisaintek) stated that it would investigate the case of alleged research fabrication by Indonesian citizens (WNI) in the International Society of Pneumonia and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD) 2026 conference in Denmark.

The Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Mendiktisaintek) Brian Yuliarto stated that he had formed a special investigation team led by the Inspector General of Kemdiktisaintek.

"We have also coordinated with the UNY campus (Yogyakarta State University), the campus where he graduated from the alleged perpetrator of this violation," said the Minister of Education and Technology in a working meeting at the DPR building, Jakarta, Tuesday, June 2, reported by ANTARA.

Based on the initial investigation of the affiliation, his party found out that almost all of the individuals involved were not in the status of lecturers or formal educators at any university in Indonesia.

The Minister of Education and Technology explained that the absence of the status of employment made it impossible for his party to directly impose administrative and ethical sanctions such as dismissal of lecturers.

"The point is that when it's not a lecturer, our authority as a ministry does not fall into that realm. Because what we can do is after we investigate, we find (if the violation is committed by a lecturer), we hold an ethics and discipline commission hearing," said the Minister of Education and Technology.

However, the Minister of Education and Technology Brian said that UNY had acted proactively by summoning four suspected perpetrators to be questioned about their motives, while the ministry continued to collect strong evidence to drag this case into the criminal realm.

"Because we believe that there is no legal action, we are afraid that it will not have a deterrent effect. So we see that one of the things we found is the use of affiliates without permission from certain campuses in Indonesia. Well, that means they are using/using the name of the university without permission and also means fraud," said Mendiktisaintek Brian.

The Minister of Science and Technology underlined that this firm step was taken because, in addition to the substance of the research submitted by the perpetrators being very bad and unaccountable, this action has had a massive impact on the credibility of national academics.

"This is what we will continue to coordinate because there are many inputs to us, even though this is outside the university but in terms of ethics and also in terms of international world views, this will make a very negative image for researchers in Indonesia," said Brian Yuliarto.

It is known that the alleged manipulation of scientific data and identities is suspected to have been deliberately carried out by the alleged perpetrators in order to obtain travel funding assistance, so that they can attend conferences abroad for free.