Bio journal retracts 107 Chinese research papers

a balance between overloaded daily work schedules and academic requirements, primarily publishing papers to secure professional development and promotion.

“How many patients do Chinese doctors see a day? It can be more than 50,” he told China Daily. “How can we have the time and energy to do research or publish papers?”

For those outside the scientific community, the response to the retraction has been mixed.

“Hard to believe so many doctors lied in the papers. Can patients still trust them to help us treat diseases?” wrote one Sina Weibo user.

However, others argued that doctors’ hands may be forced by an unfair system. “As a patient, I’m more concerned about whether they can cure my illness rather than how many papers they’ve published,” another netizen said.

Wang Chunfa, executive secretary of the China Association for Science and Technology, has expressed deep concern over the retraction, which came just days after he met in Beijing with Arnout Jacobs, the head of Springer Nature for Greater China.

In that meeting, he told Jacobs that such problems would decrease, as China is reforming its management system in science and technology, according to a statement by the association on Friday.

Wang said the journal and authors had an unavoidable responsibility in the latest scandal, with the statement adding that Tumor Biology had retracted papers over similar concerns about the peer review process in 2015.

Verification and evaluation should be enhanced before publication, Wang said.

Jacobs vowed at the meeting to improve management and cooperation with the association to enhance the credibility of the science. He stressed the publisher was not targeting China, as it had also retracted papers by experts from other countries, the statement said.