It's time for innovation in social sciences and humanities research

Prof. Dr. Pham Quang Minh

To meet the need for innovation in social sciences and humanities, I think it is necessary to internationalize scientific activities. In the strategy of internationalization and international integration in science in general, international publications are one of the very important measures, because thanks to international publications, the world understands Vietnam and Vietnam can approach the world. For example, for a long time, we have been fighting to protect territorial sovereignty, but there are very few articles in international journals researching the East Sea, while China has many articles. In the field of natural sciences, the two-way "exchange" between us and the outside world is probably better than in the field of social sciences and humanities. I have the feeling that our social scientists are lost in the world of scientific research, unable to dialogue with the outside world due to language barriers, limitations in methodology and methods, and in thinking. To eliminate the boundaries, it is necessary to introduce, if necessary, translate, new research results of world scientists to Vietnam. In the current situation, many Vietnamese scientists have absolutely no idea what the world is doing, do not know what research they are doing about Vietnam and vice versa.

The implementation of the international publication policy for social sciences and humanities still faces many difficulties. For example, Hanoi National University assigned our University of Social Sciences and Humanities a target of publishing 34 articles in ISI/SCOPUS journals each year. However, in reality, we have an average of 40 international publications each year, but only about 5-6 of them are in ISI/SCOPUS journals. For nearly 10 years now, this situation has remained the same. At first, the University awarded each staff member with an international publication a bonus of 5 million VND/article, while ISI/SCOPUS articles were initially awarded 10 million, then increased to 15 million VND/article. However, increasing the bonus does not mean increasing the number of articles. The bonus is only meant to encourage the spirit of scientists. Therefore, in addition to encouragement, we are considering whether to implement the "contracting" of international publications to each Associate Professor and Professor, similar to the "contracting of 100" and "contracting of 10" to households and agricultural workers. Although it is difficult, we must be very determined and cannot maintain the current stagnant situation. Many scientists, after being awarded the title of Associate Professor and Professor, "sit still" because they think they have completed their tasks. According to statistics, the whole country currently has more than 1,100 Professors and more than 9,000 Associate Professors, but it turns out that less than 40% of them have published works internationally.

To promote social science and humanities research, in addition to the efforts of individual scientists and research institutions, a more reasonable science management policy is also needed. Regarding investment in science, to promote social science and humanities, it is necessary to focus more investment on this sector, and we cannot allow the current imbalance in investment between natural sciences and social sciences (natural sciences are 60 while social sciences are only 4). It is necessary to immediately eliminate many misconceptions such as no need to learn from anyone, research in social science and humanities only requires "paper and pen" or social science and humanities do not produce material wealth, so no investment is needed. Because of these misconceptions, we are currently paying a high price for the backwardness and backwardness not only of social science and humanities but also of the development of society.

On the other hand, it is also necessary to "untie" academic thinking, and it is impossible to continue the old one-way thinking and imposition in many fields of social science research. Looking at the world, international awards for social science research on Vietnam in the past 10 years have all belonged to foreign scientists with new research that in our country is considered "sensitive" and "offensive". Obviously, if we still maintain old thinking, do not dare to enter into new topics with new thinking, new approaches, new methods and new sources of documents, then we certainly cannot promote social science research and dialogue with the world.