方舟子的Blog

方舟子按：2005年3月20日我接受了美国Knight-Ridder报系记者Tim
Johnson的电子邮件采访。Tim Johnson的有关报道《教授剽窃在中国成为“国
耻”》（In China, faculty plagiarism a ‘national scandal’）已在3月22日
发表
（http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14161154.htm）。
下面是我接受其采访的译文，原文为英文。

　　1) 自你开始学术打假工作以来，你收到的针对科研人员剽窃的可靠指控有
多少？

　　我没有一个精确的数字。自从我在2000年8月开始这项工作以来，我已经披
露了超过500起的学术不端行为，而这仅仅是我收到的投诉的一小部分。它们大
多数与剽窃有关，而我只公布了那些我认为可靠的事例。

　　2) 为什么中国学术界人士害怕指责其同行的学术剽窃或学术腐败行为？该
情形与美国有何不同？或者它是相似的？

　　学术不端或学术腐败在中国学者中是如此泛滥，以至于他们中的大多数人对
此已经习惯了。在中国，剽窃国外论文是个普遍现象。他们不把这当回事。另外，
中国没有保护揭发者的机制，因此，即使有人能正直勇敢地站出来揭露其同事或
上级的错误行为，也肯定会面临报复。我认为，美国的情况与此迥然不同。美国
的学术界对学术不端的态度更明确，对学术不端进行处理的机制更好。例如，美
国有正式渠道来报告、调查和惩罚学术不端，而中国则欠缺。

　　3) 学术剽窃是问题与文化有关吗？其根源是否导致了大学的升迁体制主要
看重在学术期刊上发表论文？

　　传统上，中国的学者没有知识产权的概念，不怎么尊重他人的脑力劳动成果。
他们使用一套与西方相当不同的学术标准。学术剽窃行为曝光后，剽窃者往往找
出种种借口来辩解他没有实施剽窃，而且能轻易地设法得到权威机构和公众的同
情。由于中国没有处理学术剽窃的官方渠道，欺诈者根本就不用担心他们有一天
会被逮住并得到惩罚。目前的大学升迁体制正好是使该状况更加恶化的催化剂。

　　4) 权威机构对该问题的处理充分恰当吗？还必须采取其它什么措施？

　　不。权威机构并没有真正处理该问题。他们在这个问题上只不过嘴上说说而
已。权威机构对我所披露的大部分学术不端案例不予理睬。仅有很少的学术不端
案例得以在官方渠道曝光，而受到惩罚的欺诈者则更寥寥无几。如果胡兴荣不是
自己辞职，我认为汕头大学不会真的惩罚他。中国应当设立一个调查学术不端的
全国机构，就象美国卫生部的科研诚信办公室那样的机构。不过，即使马上成立
了这样的机构，该机构很可能也会腐败而不能正常运作，就象别的中国政府机构
一样。所以，我认为情形不会很快就得到重大改善。这也是个政治和社会问题。
在我们能够解决这个问题之前，中国社会必须先有一个根本改善。我们需要有民
主的政体、独立的科教机构以及新闻自由。还有很长的路要走。

1) How many credible charges of plagiarism against Chinese academic
scholars have you received since starting your work?

I don’t have a precise number. Since starting my work in August, 2000,
I have disclosed more than 500 cases of scientific misconduct and
these were just a small portion of charges I received. Most of them
were about plagiarism, and I only disclosed those I believed were
credible.
?
2) Why do Chinese academics fear to level charges of plagiarism or
corruption against their peers? How is this different than in the U.S.?
Or is it similar?
?
Scientific misconduct or corruption is so widely spread among Chinese
academics that most of them have been used to it. Plagiarizing foreign
papers is a common practice in China. They don’t think it’s a big deal.
Besides, China doesn’t have a system to protect whistleblowers, so
even if someone has integrity and guts to stand up against his or her
wrongdoing peers or supervisors, he or she will certainly face
retaliation. I think the situation in the U.S. is quite different. The
U.S. academics are much clearer, and the system is much better, for
instance, the U.S. has an official channel to report, investigate and
punish the scientific misconducts, which China lacks.

3) Is the plagiarism issue cultural? Or is its root cause a system of
promotions at universities focusing largely on the publishing of work
in academic journals?
?
Traditionally, Chinese scholars didn’t have concept of intellectual
property and didn’t respect others’ intellectual works that much. They
used a quite different academic standard from the Westerns. When a
plagiarism act was exposed, the plagiarizer often argued that he
didn’t commit plagiarism using many excuses, and could easily manage
to receive sympathy from the authorities and public. Since China does
not have an official channel properly to deal with the issue, the
cheaters don’t have to worry they will someday be caught and punished.
The current promotion system at universities is just a catalyst to
make the situation worse.

4) Is the problem being dealt with adequately by authorities? What
else must be done?

No, the authorities aren’t really dealing with this problem. They are
just paying lip service to this issue. The cases I have disclosed
mostly were ignored by authorities. Very few scientific misconduct
cases were exposed through official channel, and fewer the cheaters
were punished. If Hu Xingrong didn’t resign by himself, I don’t think
Shantou University would really punish him. China should set up a
national organization to investigate scientific misconducts, similar
to the Office of Research Integrity of the U.S Health Service. But
even if it’s established right now, it itself will probably also
corrupt and won’t function properly, like other Chinese government
organizations. So I don’t think the situation will have dramatic
improvement very soon. This is also a political and social problem.
Before we can solve the problem, the Chinese society must have a
radical change first. We will need to have a democratic government,
independent scientific and educational institutions, and free press. A
long way to go.

(XYS20060324)

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