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Chinese NSF Makes 59 Misconduct Findings

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), that country’s leading basic research agency, has found 59 scientists guilty of research misconduct in the last two years, but has published detailed information including the names of the respondents in only three cases, according to Science. (9/16/05)

Falsification was found against 40 percent of the respondents, plagiarism against 34 percent, fabrication or theft of data against 7 percent, and other misconduct against 19 percent.

The NSFC formed a 19-member committee of distinguished scientists in December 1998 to investigate allegations of research misconduct. The committee has opened 542 cases based mostly on allegations made by anonymous whistleblowers.

Detailed information and the names of three respondents were announced for the first time in August 2005. In these three cases, the respondents were barred for up to four years from submitting new grant proposals to NSFC. No respondents appealed the findings.

The committee concluded that Su Bingyin, a neurologist at the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, included ghost researchers in his grant proposal, plagiarized from other applications and altered biographical information; that Cui Jianwei, a postgraduate student in accounting at Jilin University, took a thesis from an American university web site, translated it into Chinese, and published it in a Chinese magazine; that Li Guibao, a lab director at the Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, plagiarized material.

The 29-paragraph regulation published in April 2005 permits NSFC to decide whether to publicize its findings. No public announcements were made on 40 cases resolved in 2004. The general nature of the misconduct was announced in 16 cases resolved this year, but the respondents were not identified.

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