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Two Norwegian politicians face plagiarism accusations regarding their master's theses, leading to investigations by their universities. The scandals have sparked debates over academic integrity, with calls for stricter penalties for plagiarism. The incidents have also raised concerns about the treatment of students versus politicians and the need for national regulations on plagiarism. Experts stress the importance of promoting ethical research norms and integrity within universities.

A global surge in fraudulent research papers, exceeding 10,000 retractions last year, has become an international scandal. Originating in China, the issue has spread to other regions, with "paper mills" producing fabricated studies. Bribes to editors and infiltration of fraudulent agents exacerbate the problem. Major publishers are taking action, but financial incentives for researchers to publish persist. The escalating prevalence of sham science is eroding the foundation of trustworthy scientific knowledge, prompting calls for systematic solutions to address this growing threat to the integrity of research.

In the book "Corruption in Higher Education: Global Challenges and Responses," 34 experts shed light on various corruption issues in higher education: contract cheating and outsourcing assignments; ambivalent hiring processes; fake universities that take various forms, from profit-driven schemes to students buying degrees without fulfilling obligations; corruption research involves scholars, administrators, and agencies, united against academic corruption. Future steps include integrity theory development, examining secondary education's impact, leveraging technology, avoiding social group stigmatization, and fostering global cooperation.

A recently published survey study of PhD students in Denmark reveals that an ethically questionable culture for assigning authorships to research papers is widespread within the medical and natural sciences across Europe. 49% of the PhD students in medical sciences had granted guest authorship to a person in power while 42% were in the natural and technical sciences.

In a national survey on research integrity by Dutch academics, 40,000 researchers, from PhD students to full professors, admitted to committing at least one of the 11 questionable research practices. One in 12 researchers is estimated to have fabricated or falsified research results in the last three years. According to a postdoctoral researcher and lead investigator of the survey, findings are already being discussed with policymakers in universities and medical centres in the Netherlands.

When a doctoral student denounced the theft of her work, she was told that it was part of the game. One in five PhD students in the academic world is facing this practice. According to an online survey conducted among 1,800 PhD students and young doctors, 21% of respondents said they had seen someone else take credit for their work. Concerned about the impact on their future careers, many PhD students choose to remain silent on such abuse.

The thesis of the former German minister for family affairs was found to contain nearly 70 passages violating good academic practice. The Free University of Berlin required the minister to return the PhD certificate within one month after notification of the withdrawal of the degree, acquired through “deceit regarding independent academic achievement”.

The world's largest multi-disciplinary research integrity survey is at risk of failing to achieve its objectives with two-thirds of the institutions invited to collaborate having declined to participate because of the sensitivity of the subject and fear of negative publicity. As a result, the researchers who conducted the Dutch National Research Integrity Survey found themselves alone in scraping up many e-mail addresses and soliciting responses. They gathered feedback from less than 15% of the 40,000 targeted participants.