方舟子的Blog

中国的医学院开除被指控剽窃的院长助理

记者：Paul Mooney
美国《高等教育纪事报》2006年3月29日

　　中国清华大学开除了其医学院的院长助理。该教授被指控剽窃了美国医学杂
志的一篇论文，并可能在其简历中捏造工作经历。

　　当地一位致力于揭露剽窃和学术腐败的学者方舟子去年十一月在其网志中
首先做出了这一指控。

　　方先生指控该医学院领导刘辉剽窃了在美国工作的另一名中国医生【应是生
物学家】发表在《普通病毒学杂志》上的一篇论文。方先生也质疑刘辉在他登在
清华大学网站上的简历的一个说法，即刘辉在1994年到2004年间曾在纽约大学医
学中心工作，并担任外科研究中心的主任。从那以后清华大学就从其网站删掉了
刘医生的网页。

　　纽约大学医学院的一名发言人确认在那段时期并没有一位叫刘辉的人在其医
学中心工作。

　　清华大学在3月10日开除了刘医生。它没有答复要求提供信息的请求。但是
在一份正式声明中，清华大学说经过调查发现刘辉在申请清华大学职位时以及
在个人网页中提供的材料存在“严重不实”和“学术不端行为”，并决定解除与
他的聘任合同。

　　记者未能找到刘医生进行采访，刘医生也未答复要求提供信息的电子邮件。
不过，《北京青年报》在上周报道说，刘医生曾经向清华校方发了一封电子邮件，
强烈否认剽窃他人文章。据该报说，刘医生辩称由于图书馆检索系统在检索时出
了问题，所以误将那篇论文收入他的论文表中。刘医生说该论文的真正作者的姓
和名字缩写和他一样，都是Liu H.。

　　方先生认定，在刘医生声称在纽约大学工作的那段时期，他实际上是在也位
于纽约的赛奈山医学院的一个外科实验室工作。

　　中国教育部做出公开声明确认刘医生已被开除，并宣布它计划设立一个特殊
委员会以监督中国的学术腐败和剽窃。批评者认为这些现象正在急速增加。

　　不过，方先生把学术腐败泛滥的原因归咎为是由于学者“不道德地追求权力
和利益”，以及缺乏报道这类事件的新闻自由。“中国没有一个官方渠道供报告、
调查和惩处学术不端行为，”他说，“因此，欺诈者不必担心有一天他们会被抓
住并受到惩处。”

　　这位现在是一名自由撰稿人的生物学者说，自从2000年8月以来，他已披露
了超过500起的“学术不端”事例，但是这些事例中的大多数都被官方忽视了。
他说刘被开除只是“一个例外”。

　　一份流行的杂志《中国新闻周刊》在上周发表了一篇长达12页的报道，题为
“高校的非典型腐败”。

（方舟子译）

Chinese Medical School Fires Assistant Dean Who Was Accused of Plagiarism

The Chronicle of Higher Education
Wednesday, March 29, 2006

By PAUL MOONEY

Beijing

China’s Tsinghua University has fired the assistant dean of its
School of Medicine following accusations that the professor
plagiarized an article from an American medical journal, and may have
fabricated work experience listed on his resume.

The accusations first surfaced last November on a blog set up by a
local scholar, Fang Zhouzhi, that is devoted to exposing cases of
plagiarism and academic corruption.

Mr. Fang accused the medical-school official, Liu Hui, of having
plagiarized a scholarly work by another Chinese doctor in the United
States that was published in the Journal of General Virology. Mr.
Fang also raised doubts about Dr. Liu’s claim on his resume which
was posted on a university Web site, that he had worked at the New
York University Medical Center from 1994 to 2004, including a stint
as the director of a surgery-research institute. Tsinghua University
has since deleted Dr. Liu’s page from its Web site.

A spokesman for the New York University School of Medicine, which is
part of the medical center, confirmed that no one by the name Liu Hui
had worked at the center during the period listed on the resume.

Tsinghua University, which dismissed Dr. Liu on March 10, did not
respond to requests for information. However, in an official
statement, the university said that after carrying out an
investigation, it had discovered “serious inaccuracies” and “improper
actions” in the materials submitted to the university in Dr. Liu’s
employment application and on his personal Web site, and had decided
to cancel his contract.

Dr. Liu could not be reached for an interview and did not reply to an
e-mail message requesting information. However, the newspaper Beijing
Youth Daily reported last week that Dr. Liu had sent an e-mail
message to Tsinghua administrators vigorously denying plagiarizing
the article. According to the newspaper, Dr. Liu argued that the
paper had mistakenly appeared on his list of research papers because
of a data-collection error by a library data-retrieval system. Dr.
Liu said that the actual author of the article shared the same
surname and first initial, Liu, H.

Mr. Fang alleges that Dr. Liu was actually working in a surgical
laboratory at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, also in New York,
during part of the period that he claimed to be working at New York
University.

The Ministry of Education made a public statement confirming the
dismissal of Dr. Liu, adding that it was planning to set up a special
commission to monitor what critics say is a rapid increase in
academic corruption and plagiarism in China.

Mr. Fang, however, attributed the growing problem to scholars
“seeking power and profit without morality” and to the lack of a free
media to report such incidents. “China does not have an official
channel to report, investigate, and punish scientific misconduct,” he
said. “Therefore, cheaters don’t have to worry that they will some
day be caught and punished.”

The biologist, who now works as a freelance writer, said that he had
exposed more than 500 cases of “scientific misconduct” since August
2000, but that most of the cases were ignored by the government. He
said Liu’s dismissal was “an exception.”

The popular magazine China Newsweek ran a 12-page cover story last
week on academic misconduct here titled “The Abnormal Corruption of
Higher Education.”

(XYS20060329)

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