Research Team
Plastun Oleksiy Leonidovich – Ph.D. in Economics, Professor, Research Supervisor
Petrushenko Yuriy Nikolaevich – Ph.D. in Economics, Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Mayboroda Tetyana Nikolaevna – Ph.D. in Economics, Associate Professor, Research Fellow
Vorontsova Anna Sergiyevna – Ph.D. in Economics, Research Fellow
Filatova Anna Petrovna – Ph.D. in Economics, Research Fellow
The purpose of the research
The purpose of the research is to comprehensively study the mechanisms of using science as a propaganda tool and develop theoretical and applied approaches to identifying and countering such practices in the scientific community.
The main objectives include:
To investigate historical precedents and the evolution of the use of science as a tool of state propaganda — with a focus on totalitarian regimes of the 20th–21st centuries, including the USSR and Nazi Germany.
To define the theoretical foundations of propaganda in science — including the concept of scientific legitimization of ideology, manipulative rhetorical practices, and cognitive biases.
To analyze the main methods of propaganda in science.
To study the current Russian practice of using science for propagandist purposes — including thematic, institutional, and author-level analysis.
To conduct a quantitative assessment of the scale and intensity of propagandist narratives in Russian scientific publications related to the Russian-Ukrainian war.
To develop criteria, models, and tools (including those based on artificial intelligence) for identifying propaganda in scientific materials.
To propose the concept of a “propaganda index” and other quantitative metrics that allow for the evaluation of scientific publications in terms of their compliance with academic standards of objectivity.
To develop and test methods for countering the spread of propaganda in the academic environment – at the level of institutions, databases, journals, and the international scientific community.
To conduct practical testing of tools for detecting and countering propaganda using the example of Russian academic output.
To present the research findings and conduct a series of webinars for interested Ukrainian scholars on detecting fakes in science, primarily in Russian science.
To prepare analytical reports, recommendations, and disseminate the research results among the academic community, international institutions, and bodies of scientific ethics.
To strengthen the organizational capacity of the analytical center “Research of Fakes and Propaganda in Russian Science” at Sumy State University.
Scientific research stages
Conceptual aspects of using science as propaganda.
Theoretical substantiation and development of tools for identifying propaganda in scientific publications and other scientific activities.
A comprehensive approach to countering the spread of propaganda in the scientific community.