《华尔街日报》:中国将制定科学家行为准则遏制学术造假
2 06 2006年 记者:NICHOLAS ZAMISKA
《华尔街日报》2006.5.29
(《华尔街日报》中文网络版翻译,方舟子据英文原文略做修正)
近几个月来的一连串学术造假丑闻对加强监管提出了要求,有鉴于此,中国
政府已开始采取措施遏制愈演愈烈的造假风。
在学者和科技界人士的不断呼吁和推动下,中国政府上周表示,将制定全国
性的科研人员行为准则,并成立一个由30人组成的学术研究监管机构。中国政府
此举的背景是,韩国克隆技术先驱黄禹锡因造假行为东窗事发而名誉扫地,同时,
国内针对学术造假的指控日益增多,而科学家们也越来越勇于揭露造假行为。
由于被指在电脑芯片研究中造假,上海交通大学微电子学院院长陈进上月被
开除。他所进行的研究项目曾接受国家经费支持,并被视为中国走上自主创新道
路的一个标志。最近,另外两名学者也由于工作经验及学术记录受到质疑而离开
工作岗位。笔者未能联系到陈进发表评论。
“一些人把科研活动当作工具,追名逐利;一些人抄袭别人的研究成果,甚
至攻击……揭发者。”新华社报导引用中国科技协会主席周光召上周在北京召开
的科协大会上的讲话。“这样的行为严重损害了科技界的形像,并且不利于科技
创新的发展。”
据一些研究人员称,目前,中国政府在监督学术人员方面的措施非常有限,
一些大学有时不愿对学术不端行为进行调查。这种状况最终导致大众媒体上对此
类现象铺天盖地的指责和辩驳。
最近中国两位科学家之间激烈的辩驳(一人指控另一人捏造数据)引发了对
政府监管不力的批评声。这次指控最早出现在一家网站上,该网站已充斥了数百
例类似造假事件的揭露,成为人们发泄对中国学术造假现象不满和担忧情绪的主
要出口。
本月,约120名身居美国的中国科学家联名给中国科技部部长发来公开信,
呼吁政府“设立国家级权威机构,制定调查学术违规行为的相关政策和机制。”
这些科学家指出,中国缺乏与美国和其他很多国家类似的针对学术造假的指
控进行调查和处理的途径。比如,美国卫生与公共服务部(U.S. Department
of
Health and Human
Services)在马里兰州罗克维尔设有专门的办公室负责调查此
类指控。
联名写信的科学家之一、约翰斯·霍普金斯大学医学院(教授陈列平说:
“文化/大革命期间,人们非常容易相互攻击。在没有规则约束的情况下,这种攻
击能变得非常出格。”
日益激烈的竞争在中国学者中间掀起了一股发表论文的潮流。根据美国国家
科学基金会今年发表的一篇报告,中国学者每年发表的科学论文数量从1988年的
4,619篇增加至2003年的29,186篇,增长了六倍多。
中国政府也承认,剽窃以及其他形式的学术造假行为非常普遍。在新华社最
近发表的一篇题为“中国剽窃和学术造假变得猖獗”的报导中,一位政府官员称,
根据对180名研究人员进行的最新调查,有60%的被调查者表示曾经出钱在学术期
刊上发表文章;有60%左右的人表示他们有抄袭他人成果的行为。
China Lays Out Measures To Tackle Academic Fraud
By NICHOLAS ZAMISKA
May 29, 2006 Wall Street Journal
China is moving to address an apparent surge in academic
fraud
after a spate of scandals in recent months that has prompted
demands
for more oversight.
The Chinese government said last week that it will issue
national
ethics guidelines for researchers and will form a 30-member
commission
to watch over the country’s academics. The move, which had been
urged
by academics and scientists, follows the spectacular fall from
grace
of South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo Suk and comes amid
mounting
charges of scientific fraud in China, with scientists in the
country
growing bolder in ferreting out and reporting misconduct.
Chen Jin, a dean at Shanghai Jiaotong University, was fired
this
month after the university alleged he had falsified research on
a
computer chip that had received state funding and had been heralded
as
a symbol of China’s move towards innovation. Two other academics
left
their posts recently after questions were raised about their
work
experience and academic records. Dr. Chen couldn’t be reached
to
comment.
”Some people use scientific and technological research to
gain
fame and profit, and some plagiarize others’ research results,
and
even attack those who…expose their fraud,” Zhou Guangzhao,
president
of the China Association of Science and Technology, was quoted by
the
official Xinhua News Agency as saying at the organization’s
conference
in Beijing last week. “Such behavior has poisoned the academic
field
and harmed the innovation-oriented construction of the
country.”
Until now, the government has done little to oversee the work
of
academic researchers, and universities have sometimes been
unwilling
to investigate claims of wrongdoing, according to researchers.
The
result has been a morass of accusations and rebuttals that often
play
out in the popular media.
A bitter battle in China between two scientists, one of
whom
accuses the other of falsifying data, triggered a backlash against
the
government for its failure to act. The accusations surfaced on a
Web
site that has swelled with hundreds of similar accusations of
scientific misconduct and has become the main outlet for the
country’s
academic angst.
This month, nearly 120 Chinese researchers living in the U.S.
sent
an open letter to China’s minister of science and technology,
urging
the government to “set up authoritative agencies at the national
level
to provide policies and mechanisms for investigation of allegations
of
scientific misconduct.”
The group has complained that China, unlike the U.S. and
many
other countries, has lacked similar ways to investigate and
resolve
accusations of academic dishonesty. The U.S. Department of Health
and
Human Services, for instance, has an entire office in
Rockville,
Maryland, dedicated to investigating such allegations.
”During the Cultural Revolution, it was very easy for people
to
attack each other. And without rules, it can go very far,”
said
Lieping Chen, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School
of
Medicine in Baltimore, one of the scientists who signed the
letter.
Increasing competition has helped foster a scientific
publishing
bonanza among Chinese academics. The number of scientific
papers
published annually by Chinese authors rose more than sixfold to
29,186
in 2003 from 4,619 in 1988, according to a report published this
year
by the National Science Foundation, a U.S. government agency
that
funds research.
Even the Chinese government says plagiarism and other forms
of
academic dishonesty are widespread. An article published recently
by
Xinhua ran with the headline, “Plagiarism and fake research
have
become rampant in China.” In the story, a Chinese official cites
a
recent survey of 180 researchers, saying that 60% of them paid to
get
published in academic journals and that a similar percentage
copied
others’ work.
Write to Nicholas Zamiska at nicholas.zamiska@wsj.com URL for
this
article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114884968715265330.html
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