“What Can Be Bought Must Be Bought...”: Academic Ethics in the Context of “Normal Anomie” of the Russian Society

Introduction. Despite the impossibility of overestimating the importance of compliance with academic norms in conducting scientific research, there has been an increase in the diversity and number of academic deviations, and violations of academic ethics have become routine and are not perceived by the university community as a serious problem. The attitude of scientists toward violations of academic ethics and the need to comply with them remains insufficiently studied. The purpose of the study is to determine the importance of compliance with academic ethics standards for researchers at universities in the Northwestern Federal District. Materials and Methods. The study employed a mixed-methods design, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data were collected through five focus groups with postgraduate students from Saint Petersburg universities and an expert online survey of 115 university representatives from the Northwestern Federal District of Russia. Focus groups were organized to familiarize participants with the arguments of young researchers regarding the possibilities of academic deviations. An online survey allowed for quantitative assessments of various positions on the research topic, and the use of scales allowed for a quantitative assessment of qualitative characteristics, in particular the relevance of the problem of academic fraud for universities. Results. The research hypothesis about the presence of high tolerance for violations of academic ethical norms and a decline in trust in the mechanisms for controlling compliance with these norms was confirmed. Postgraduate students adapt to academic anomie, believing that the requirements of academic ethics in writing dissertations in the humanities and social sciences are very difficult to fulfill. Representatives of educational institutions in the Northwestern Federal District of Russia are willing to justify deviations from academic ethical norms in the presence of objective circumstances. External social control over compliance with academic ethics is recognized as ineffective, due to the impunity of scientists with confirmed plagiarism. Discussion and Conclusion. The results of the conducted research confirm the dominance of rational and pragmatic expediency in the scientific and pedagogical community today. The norms of academic ethics are declared, but not respected, deviant practices become routine, thereby normalized. According to the respondents, external social control over compliance with academic standards is ineffective, which inevitably leads to an increase in violations of academic ethics. The results of the study confirm the dominance of rational-pragmatic expediency in the scientific and pedagogical community today.