Science
29 November 2013:
Vol. 342 no. 6162 p. 1019
DOI: 10.1126/science.1247700
Vol. 342 no. 6162 p. 1019
DOI: 10.1126/science.1247700
- Editorial
Research Integrity in China
- E-mail: yangwei@nsfc.gov.cn.
CREDIT: D. XING
China's
research capacity has grown dramatically in the past decade, an
expansion that is reshaping the landscape of global
scientific investigation. This rapid growth has not
necessarily been accompanied by an equally measured promotion of the
cultural
norms of the scientific enterprise. Most troubling
is a lack of research integrity, which may hinder China's growth in
original
science, damage the reputation of Chinese
academics, and dampen the impact of science developed in China.
An unhealthy research environment in China
is being driven by several factors. In many research-intensive
universities and
institutions, competitive research grants
constitute oversized fractions of their budgets, providing an economic
incentive
for ethical violations. Misconduct is also
inadvertently encouraged by the use of quantitative rather than
qualitative measures
of merit, which can lure young scientists to climb
the academic ladder by stepping outside ethical boundaries.
Performance-based
subsidiary income is a policy that can entice
scientists to act unethically. And there is a talent hierarchy in
academia that
encourages scientists to overblow their findings.
The good news is that several pivotal
events over the past decade mark the long march toward research
integrity in China.
The first event at the beginning of the 21st
century was to ban multiple submissions of a paper to journals, after
clarifying
a delicate issue of the translation rights for
bilingual submissions. The copyright law was also revised to allow a
longer
embargo period to accommodate the review time
required for technical papers. The allegations of whistleblowers, mostly
anonymous,
have led to a majority of crackdowns, as evidenced
by my own handling of more than 80% of research misconduct cases at
Zhejiang
University. In addition, action by the media to
expose research misconduct, ranging from plagiarism and retractions in
the
He Haibo event, to the fraudulent “Hanxin” computer
chips, has stoked a hostile public intolerance for misconduct,
prompting
politicians to acknowledge that a serious problem
exists.
CREDIT: G. GRULLÓN/SCIENCE; ADAPTED FROM AKINDO/ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
There is now a massive education effort by
the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and Ministry of
Education
(MoE) to train graduate students, postdoctoral
fellows, and young faculty in research ethics. There is a new emphasis
on a
code of ethics, put forth by the Chinese Academy of
Sciences (CAS), CAST, and the National Natural Science Foundation of
China
(NSFC), to guide researchers in the life sciences.
Major universities as well as CAS have revised the criteria for
promotion
to emphasize the quality of research contributions
rather than the number of publications by a researcher. And since 1998,
there has been active censoring by the NSFC of
scientists who submit plagiarized grant applications. This campaign has
resulted
in a decline of 70% in the fraction of alleged
application misconduct over the past 14 years. At a press conference in
August
2013, the NSFC revealed six cases of misconduct
discovered by comparing submitted and funded proposals, including a
“proposal
for sale,” similar to manuscripts for sale
described in the News story on p. 1035.
Moreover, in 2012, the Chinese government began other surveillance and
inspections of submitted research proposals to complement
the efforts of research funding agencies in
safeguarding the ethical use of research dollars.
Help from the global science community has
been an important factor in promoting integrity in China. For example, a
dialogue
between the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and CAST has focused on drafting guidelines and
casebooks
to prevent misconduct. The movement of cultivating
standards for scientific integrity by the Global Research Council is
also
gaining momentum in China and other nations.
Many challenges lie ahead in achieving
zero tolerance for unethical behavior. China is still grappling with the
incorporation
of panel reviewers, promotion committees, and prize
nominators in the systems that award grants and titles. The development
of good science in China should accomplish three
goals: to produce original breakthroughs, to advance understanding from
discoveries
made elsewhere, and to gain global influence. None
of this can happen until the scientific enterprise is healthy and
credible.
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