CCE: Stamatović visited us and threatened that if we do not act on his initiative, he will file a criminal report

The non-governmental organization (NGO) Center for Civic Education announced that they were visited today by Aleksandar Stamatović, associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Montenegro (UCG).

The NGO states that Stamatović threatened them that, if they did not act on his initiative to have the CCE initiate proceedings with the competent authorities of the University of Montenegro to revoke the title of full professor of one of his colleagues, he would file a criminal complaint against the CCE for "inciting religious and national hatred".

They thanked Stamatović "for recognizing the importance of the work of the CCE when it comes to monitoring the University of Montenegro, especially in the area of ​​academic integrity."

"This is not an April Fool's joke, Stamatović visited us with the initiative to initiate a procedure with the competent authorities of the University of Montenegro to revoke the title of full professor from one of his colleagues, knowing that the Ethics Committee of the University of Montenegro had already dealt with and declared it incompetent in that case," the statement reads.

The CCE said that it was interesting that Stamatović did not have the confidence to process the case himself before the Ethics Committee, "even though the same Ethics Committee had already protected him once, to the public's outrage."

"Publishing the same work in two scientific journals is not a matter of nation, but of academic unethicality. We also recall the words of Danilo Kiš: 'A nationalist sees only himself – a nationalist – in others," they said..

"And we say to Stamatović - get ready for the Ethics Committee, not for threats to those who work in the interest of accountability and the public," CCE concludes.

On March 20, CCE submitted a proposal to the Ethics Committee of the University of Montenegro to establish a violation of academic integrity by professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Aleksandar Stamatović.

CCE said that Stamatović published an identical scientific article in two different journals indexed in the Web of Science scientific database.

"By doing so, he violated the clear rules of the academic community and international scientific ethics, as well as the Code of Ethics of the University of Montenegro," CCE stated.