The increasing volume of this ‘junk science’ is wreaking havoc on the credibility of the research emanating out of China, Nov 03, 2022.
Recently, a report from the National Natural Science Foundation of China found that 52 papers had problems in 2022, such as ghostwriting, plagiarism, and data falsification.
This troubling story from China highlights an important point for research institutions looking to rapidly scale their research profile and standing, growth in research activity needs to be matched with growth in the support for resourcing reflective practice. Otherwise, you can see an explosion in questionable practices and research misconduct harms the reputation of the institution.
The issue of fraud in research papers in China has fallen under the spotlight of various international groups.
In May, Retractionwatch.com said that the Association for Computing Machinery had taken down 323 Chinese papers from its database. The data were allegedly generated by computers or were made up.
In March, Nature’s academic journal said it had taken down 370 Chinese papers since January 2020. Yet, in October 2021, Nature reported that the number rose to 665, rising nearly double in just seven months.
