Experts have called for changes to China's academic assessment system after Berlin-based publisher Springer announced on April 21 it was withdrawing 107 scientific articles produced by Chinese institutions from editions of the Tumor Biology journal published between 2012 and 2016.
"We are retracting these published papers because the peer-review process required for publication in our journals had been deliberately compromised by fabricated peer reviewer reports," Peter Butler, editorial director of Springer's Cell Biology & Biochemistry department, told the Global Times.
The articles removed by Springer used the real names of authentic academic reviewers but fabricated their reviews, reported China Youth Daily.
According to the list Springer posted, the authors involved in this round of retractions are all from Chinese institutions, mostly medical institutes such as the prestigious Department of Neurosurgery, Tongji Hospital under Shanghai's Tongji University.
"Peer reviewers are required to anonymously evaluate papers before researchers get funding, but their identities are often compromised and they are contacted for better evaluation reports," Zhi Zhenfeng, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
After domestic media reports on the retractions, Wang Chunhua, head of the China Association for Science and Technology, said on April 18 that Springer should also shoulder responsibility for the fraud as it did not examine the articles "carefully" before publishing them.
Faced with this criticism, Butler told the Global Times that "although the number of articles retracted in this case is significant, it reflects our diligence in investigating publishing misconduct over an extended period of time. We recognize that this is an industry problem and are currently working on new procedures to avoid similar instances of misconduct in the future."
For shame
Despite Butler claiming that academic fraud is a global phenomenon, this incident still sparked heated discussion on Chinese social media platforms as many netizens questioned Chinese academicians' integrity.
"Why does this academic fraud keep happening in China, for shame," said Sina Weibo user huoshanerqu.
In August 2016, Springer pulled 64 articles from 10 of its journals after finding evidence of faked peer reviews, nearly all of them by Chinese contributors. In March 2015, London-based BioMed Central retracted 43 papers for faking peer reviews, 41 of them by Chinese researchers, according to an earlier Global Times report.
"Academic fraud reflects society's fraud habit. In China, many academic institutions use the quantity of articles published by an academic as the standard of assessment, which causes some research fellows to only chase the quantity instead of the quality of their study results," Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, told the Global Times.
Hu noted that unlike in the West, where a person's career can be destroyed by one fraud case, people don't take this kind of lying seriously in China.
Hu said that to reduce academic fraud, Chinese academia should focus more on quality and make peer reviews public so that the rest of society can help supervise the process.
The China Association for Science and Technology said recently that national funding will be withdrawn from the programs involved in this latest incident, and the involved authors and institutions will be barred from applying for funding, the Xinhua News Agency reported on April 27.
Structural problem
However, some doctors expressed sympathy for the fraudsters and said there are structural problems that cause such deceit.
Doctors have to publish papers to get promoted, a physician from a top Beijing hospital told the Global Times, adding that he and his peers are told by their employers to publish at least two papers in Science Citation Index (SCI) listed journals every year.
Fraud is common because few doctors have enough time and energy to produce papers, the doctor said, adding that he regularly receives calls asking him if he needs a ghostwriter.
He added that many of his colleagues cannot communicate well in English so they find companies to improve their writing.
The Global Times reporter found out that many ghostwriting firms offer a full refund if an article is not published in an SCI-listed journal.
"You just hand over your article to us and we will take care of the rest," one firm told the Global Times.
Butler told China Youth Daily that Springer knows many Chinese authors seek editing help, and it is possible that authors do not know that these polishers fabricate peer reviews.
Regardless, China's academic reputation has been severely damaged by this incident, said Hu, adding that it's time to change how doctors are assessed to reduce the excessive focus on publication.
