CAS academic faces further plagiarism accusations

More accusations of plagiarism were directed at a Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) academician, after he was first accused of the transgression by a former student last year.

Wang Zhengmin, the CAS member, allegedly copied the technology of an Australian-made artificial cochlea during his development of China's homemade product in 2003, reported China Central Television (CCTV) on Thursday.

Shen Yihu, an engineer in Wang's research team, said they bought an artificial cochlea from the Australian Cochlear Ltd to study its core chip and interior circuit. However, 65 percent of the techniques used in the homemade product were copied from Cochlear, according to Fan Baohua, another scholar in the team.

The Chinese product later was awarded an independent intellectual property right and helped Wang and the manufacturer, Shanghai Listent Medical Tech Co, a subsidiary of Hainan Haiyao Co, win funds for two national projects worth 40 million yuan ($6.6 million) in 2012 alone.

Shenzhen Stock Exchange announced Thursday that Hainan Haiyao Co suspended trading in its shares due to "major issues that may greatly affect the stock price."

An employee surnamed Liu with the chairman's secretariat of Hainan Haiyao told the Global Times that the company is verifying the information revealed by the CCTV report and would issue a statement later.

Wang Yucheng, a student of Wang Zhengmin, had previously complained to Fudan University that his mentor had plagiarized 57 papers for his CAS application in 2005.

Fudan demanded that Wang Zhengmin should explain and apologize, but none was forthcoming.

"It is a shame for the university and CAS to have no courage to punish him," Wang Yucheng said.

Fang Zhouzi, a well-known opponent of academic misconduct, said that such lenient treatment is an important cause of the many academic fraud cases in China.

"Becoming a CAS member usually means more academic resources and more research projects, which indicates more funds," Fang said.

Volunteers for the clinical trial of the plagiarized cochlea revealed that the free sample stopped working within two years, reported CCTV.