Thursday, March 23, 2006
Faculty Plagiarism Rocks Chinese Universities
Interesting story from Knight-Ridder: In China, Faculty Plagiarism a "National Scandal," by Tim Johnson:
Charges of plagiarism roil China's universities, but they're not about students cheating. They're about professors who filch from one another. Some professors pilfer the work of other scholars. Some employ teams of graduate students and publish large numbers of articles with their names on the students' work. Among those implicated in recent scandals are a star legal scholar, a biomedical researcher and a journalism ethics teacher. The cases, exposed in the Chinese press, have people talking....
Universities adopt a lax review policy, partly because many administrators value a faculty that publishes widely. Some administrators are themselves accused plagiarists. "They don't care if your research results are your own. They just want to see results," Choi said. Some senior Chinese scholars produce so many articles each year that the output would defy credibility in the West. Graduate students make it possible in many cases.
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2006/03/faculty_plagiar.html
Comments
"Some senior Chinese scholars produce so many articles each year that the output would defy credibility in the West. Graduate students make it possible in many cases "
In most cases, I'd say.
This sort of abuse is not uncommon in the US either. My first advisor expected seven refereed journal publications per student or he would not sign off on the thesis, and guess whose name had to come first in the author's list?
The bound collection of "his" papers filled two library shelves. The administrators were well aware of the practice, but as he brought in loads of research dollars and accolades to the program, they remained silent.
It's universal. Just one symptom of the seamier side of academia, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Dr. E. Scientist, phD | Mar 23, 2006 2:12:39 PM
I taught in China for two and a half years. I would say something on the order of 99% of students cheated by Western standards. To them it wasn't cheating however. For instance, on a history exam, there is only one right answer. To copy another person's answer is not plagiarism, because how can you plagiarize the truth?
I honestly don't see how this is a national scandal. This is what students do all throughout their education careers in China. It's not punished at any level, unless it's totally blatant. And printing an article off the net with the web address on the bottom and hypertext links in the text is not blatant enough at the graduate level.
Posted by: Matt | Mar 23, 2006 1:08:12 PM
"They don't care if your research results are your own. They just want to see results," Choi said.
Reminds me of the Great Leap Forward, when people melted down their metal tools to meet their steel production quotas.
Posted by: Gaijin Biker | Mar 23, 2006 4:35:27 PM