Tougher rules to curb academic fraud

New regulations allow investigation of possible offenders even after retirement

BEIJING: China will establish a lifelong accountability system to investigate and punish scholars who have committed serious academic fraud, according to new instructions.

The system will allow swift and serious probes into academic fabrication, falsification and plagiarism, even if the offender has moved on to other posts or retired, according to the new rules issued by the general offices of the Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, China’s Cabinet.

Depending on the severity of the offence, punishments can range from cancelling a project’s funding to permanently banning offenders from promotion or other research positions and revoking their titles.

Institutes that connive or shield violators will also be punished with budget cuts or judicial action.

The guidelines also urge the building of an interdepartmental research integrity management platform, the carrying out of ethical evaluations on key science projects, papers and personnel, and studying whether serious academic fraud should be made a criminal offence.

The document said the new regulations will strictly uphold the princi ples of “zero tolerance, full coverage and serious punishment” when curbing questionable academic practices to promote research integrity and increase the credibility and quality of Chinese research.

The rules are China’s toughest and most comprehensive guide on academic fraud since 2007, when the Science and Technology Ministry launched the Administration Office for Research Integrity after reports in 2006 revealed Hanxin, a chipmaking programme from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, swindled hundreds of millions of yuan in government funding through false claims.

In recent years, China has made great strides in its research integrity, but many loopholes still exist, the new document said.