Search Page

The authors who accused a website of selling their dissertations against their consent cannot demand the removal of the thesis from the platform as the sale does not constitute copyright infringement, intellectual property experts said. Many of the graduates, who said their dissertations are being sold without consent, added that the website is infringing their intellectual property rights and causing psychological and economic damages. However, unless the authors can prove that these copies are pirated, they cannot demand the shop owners to stop selling the copies.

The research ethics of China’s scientists has come under the spotlight after a major international publisher retracted 107 medical research papers by Chinese authors – the single largest number of retractions ever recorded – after discovering irregularities in the peer review process. The Springer Nature publishing company said the papers were published in the journal Tumor Biology between 2012 and 2016. “After a thorough investigation we have strong reason to believe that the peer review process was compromised,” the publisher said. The latest move by Springer constitutes the single largest withdrawal of academic papers, according to the Retraction Watch website which monitors academic fraud.

To ensure the healthy development of academia, there has to be fundamental changes made to China’s academic incentive system with a move away from the current method of judging researchers through the number of publications they have in ranked journals. This method leads some to chase after numbers while ignoring academic integrity. With deep roots in Chinese cultural traditions and a fertile soil that nourishes corruption, China’s battle against research misconduct is doomed to be arduous.

Australian universities have been hyperactive in tying up collaborations and research cooperation deals with universities and other organisations in China, including Chinese state-backed companies. But in the wake of a major political scandal in Australia involving Chinese donors who have also funded local institutions, universities have been advised to be alert about undue influence by donor organisations on research, including pressure to produce research for Chinese propaganda purposes.

Around two-thirds of China's top research universities still have policies that can be used to limit the proportion of women students, despite tighter government regulations issued this year against gender discrimination in universities and the workplace.

In this article, Dr John Richard Schrock, who teaches at Emporia State University in Kansas, explains the vast differences between research, citation and teaching styles in Chinese and American university students, citing cultural and education gaps for instances of plagiarism.

A Chinese Professor has been fired by his university and disqualified from China's Recruitment Program of Global Experts for copying his resume and academic articles from three other academics with the same name. The 39 year-old professor with the Beijing University of Chemical Technology has admitted falsifying his educational background, work experience and published articles by copying the details from overseas professors.

A man assumed the academic identity of a Yale University assistant professor who has the same name as him for several months. The person joined Beijing University of Chemical Technology as a professor in November. His resume listed seven articles published by top English-language academic journals, but the articles were the work of an assistant professor at Yale University.

Even in the country's best universities, plagiarism and falsified data are preventing the country from developing advanced science, says a world-renowned mathematics professor.