【10.04.14 新西兰先驱报】Plagiarism hurting China's dream

青蛙小王子

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10638163&pnum=2

LIUZHOU - When professors in China need to write research papers to get promoted, many turn to people like Lu Keqian.
Working on his laptop in a cramped spare bedroom, the former schoolteacher ghostwrites for professors, students, government offices - anyone willing to pay his fee, typically about 300 yuan ($62).
"My opinion is that writing papers for someone else is not wrong," he said.
"There will always be a time when one needs help from others. Even our great leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping needed help writing."
Ghostwriting, plagiarising or faking results is so rampant in Chinese academia that some experts worry it could hinder China's efforts to become a leader in science.
The Government views science as critical to China's modernisation, and the latest calls for government spending on science and technology to grow by 8 per cent to 163 billion yuan ($33 billion) this year.
State-run media recently exulted over reports that China publishes more papers in international journals than any except the US.
But not all the research stands up to scrutiny. In December, a British journal retracted 70 papers from a Chinese university, all by the same two lead scientists, saying the work had been fabricated.
"Academic fraud, misconduct and ethical violations are very common in China," said Professor Rao Yi, dean of the life sciences school at Peking University. "It is a big problem."
Critics blame weak penalties and a system that bases faculty promotions and bonuses on the number, rather than quality, of papers published.
Dan Ben-Canaan is familiar with plagiarism. The Israeli professor has taught for nine years at Heilongjiang University in the northeastern city of Harbin.
A colleague approached him in 2008 for a paper he wrote about the kidnapping and murder of a Jewish musician in Harbin in 1933 during the Japanese occupation.
"He had the audacity to present it as his own paper at a conference that I organised," Ben-Canaan said.
In a separate case, he gave material he had written to a researcher at the prestigious Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He said he was shocked to receive a book by the academic that was mostly a copy and translation of the material Ben-Canaan had provided - without any attribution.
The pressure to publish has created a ghostwriting boom. Nearly 1 billion yuan was spent on academic papers in China last year, up fivefold from 2007, a study by Wuhan University professor Shen Yang showed.Be part of the news. Send pics, video and tips to nzherald.
Lu's Lu Ke Academic Centre boasts a network of 20 to 30 graduate students and professors whose specialties range from computer technology to military affairs.
Among the papers bought and sold in 2007, more than 70 per cent were plagiarised, the Wuhan study found.
Last year, internet users found that the deputy principal of Anhui Agricultural University had committed plagiarism in as many as 20 papers.
The university removed him from his post but allowed him to continue teaching.
In June, the principal of a traditional Chinese medicine university in Guangzhou was accused of plagiarising at least 40 per cent of his doctoral thesis from another paper.
And last month, the state-run China Youth Daily reported a 1997 medical paper had been plagiarised repeatedly over the past decade.
At least 25 people from 16 organisations copied from the work, and more doctors are expected to be named as the investigation by two students using plagiarism-detecting software continues.
Fang Shimin, an independent investigator of fraud, said he and his volunteers expose about 100 cases every year, publicising them on a website titled "New Threads".
"The most common ones are plagiarism and exaggerating academic achievement," Fang said.
The papers retracted by the British journal came from researchers at Jinggangshan University in southeastern China. The editors are checking other papers from the same institution, and say more retractions are expected.
The journal, Acta Crystallographica Section E, publishes discoveries of new crystal structures, much of it from legitimate Chinese research.
Last month the Education Ministry released guidelines for forming a 35-member watchdog committee. Also, in a faxed reply to questions, it said it has asked universities to get tough.
Rao, the Peking University dean, remains sceptical.
Government ministries are happy to fund research but not to police it, he said. "The authorities don't want to be the bad guy."
- AP