China to punish universities that fail to sanction research misconduct

[NNadir]

This came in on one of my Nature Briefing news feeds.

While the US commits scientific and political suicide, it is good to see the next world superpower, for all its flaws, taking scientific integrity seriously.

The article:

China to punish universities that fail to sanction research misconduct

Subtitle:

Policy follows establishment of a national database of papers retracted for serious misconduct.

Excerpts:

China’s science ministry will crack down on universities that fail to investigate or sanction researchers who are involved in serious research misconduct. The move is part of a renewed push to get academics and their institutions to take scientific integrity more seriously.

The nation’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said in a notification on its website that institutions should focus on investigating papers that are retracted in international science journals as a result of misconduct.

The results of those investigations will be publicized to enhance deterrence. Institutions will face serious penalties if they conceal or tolerate wrongdoing by their researchers, the note states, although it does not reveal what those penalties might be.

Holding institutions accountable can be an effective way to curb academic misconduct, says Li Tang, a science- and innovation-policy researcher at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. Research integrity is often managed most effectively when done at the institutional level, she adds.

China has a been trying to address ongoing research misconduct for years. In 2023, Hindawi, a subsidiary of the publisher Wiley, issued more than 9,600 retractions, of which about 8,200 had a co-author in China. In 2024, the government did the first nationwide audit of retracted papers, asking universities to clarify why papers had been retracted and to investigate cases of misconduct...

...Xiaotian Chen, a library and information scientist at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, says that MOST’s plan is “another step forward” for research integrity. “This could be especially relevant in the age of AI, which has become another way for manufacturing research publications in the world. As a journal editor-in-chief, I have seen multiple AI-generated paper submissions by authors from other countries. China may not be immune from this new round of a new way of manufacturing research publications...”

Successful and powerful countries have an active partnership between government and science, and the relationship must be conducted in an atmosphere of trust and integrity.

Since the United States, which once was a powerful and successful country, but is now in a free fall collapse as a result of the installation of an orange corrupt pedophile as its head, has abrogated this responsibility, it is good to see its successor as the world's major power doing the right thing.

I trust you're having a nice Sunday.