In its second batch of misconduct findings this year, the organization responsible for allocating basic research funding in China has called out 25 researchers for paper mill activity and plagiarism.
The National Natural Science Foundation of China, or NSFC, gives more than 20,000 grants annually in disciplines ranging from agriculture to cancer research. The NSFC publishes the reports periodically “in accordance with relevant regulations,” the first report, released in April, states. The organization awarded 31.9 billion yuan, or about US$4.5 billion, in project funds in 2023.
The NSFC published the results of its investigations on June 13. The reports listed 11 specific papers and 26 grant applications and approvals.
The misconduct findings were similar to those in the NSFC’s first first batch in April. Offenses included “buying and selling of experimental research data” and “plagiarism, forgery and tampering.” As a result, NSFC barred those researchers from applying for or participating in grants for three or five years, and, in some cases, required grant recipients to pay back funds they’d already received.
Seven of the studies on the list, coauthored by 14 of the sanctioned researchers, were retracted before the report was released.
An email to the NSFC asking whether the organization informed the journals about the misconduct findings bounced back, but correspondence with several of the journals suggests the NSFC did not contact them.
Two of the papers that haven’t been retracted came from Oncotarget, an embattled journal. Elena Kurenova, the scientific integrity editor for the publication, told us the articles were already under investigation before the NSFC findings, but the journal was “not aware of the current NSFC report.” Kurenova told us given the results of their investigation and the report, “the Editorial decision was made to retract these papers.”
Four of the papers listed in the report come from journals published by Dove Press, part of Taylor & Francis: two in Onco Targets and Therapy (and retracted in 2022 and 2023), one in Cancer Management and Research, which the journal retracted in 2021, and one in the International Journal of Nanomedicine.
The editor-in-chief for the International Journal of Nanomedicine, which has not retracted the paper included in the report, did not respond to our request for comment.
Mark Robinson, media relations manager from Taylor & Francis, told us the article from International Journal of Nanomedicine was “already under investigation” before the report was released. He also said NSFC didn’t contact the journals about their report.
Two researchers named in the report, Yao Yang and Jinjin Wang, of South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, included a paper they wrote in their grant applications that was retracted in 2024. NSFC penalized them for “buying and selling papers” and “unauthorized marking of other people’s scientific fund projects,” among other offenses. Neither responded to our request for comment.
Another paper by Yang and Wang, published in Water, had those same offenses and had not been retracted when NSFC’s report was released. Jovana Mirkovic, journal relations specialist at MDPI, which publishes Water, told us in an email the journal would be “issuing a retraction notice for this article.” She did not respond to our follow-up email regarding whether the investigation began before our email or whether she was aware of the NSFC report.
He Juliang, who listed affiliations with Guangxi Medical University, had two of his projects revoked. The notice says the “allocated funds” were “recovered” from the researcher. Juliang did not respond to our request for comment.
Wen Zhong, who listed affiliations with Jiangxi University of Science and Technology in Ganzhou, used a retracted paper in the application form, progress report, and final report of a project, according to the NSFC. The report also says he committed “plagiarism, forgery and tampering, use of other people’s signatures without consent, and unauthorized marking of other people’s fund projects.” Zhong did not respond to our request for comment.
Ten of the researchers were sanctioned after they “plagiarized the contents of other people’s fund project applications,” the report states.
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“In its second batch of misconduct findings this year, the organization responsible for allocating basic research funding in China has called out 25 researchers for paper mill activity and plagiarism”, second drop in the Ocean!! How do we know if the CPC hasn’t just picked on those it doesn’t like? The only offence in the PRC is to offend the CPC.
PRC has bankrupted science. I know that I will only gain sympathy votes for the PRC for writing that, get the anti-discrimination, identity-politics brigades to back the PRC. It is true that it is not the only country which has bankrupted science, but it is the biggest contributor.
On talking to others in science I find that many don’t believe anything from the PRC as a general policy. Yes, I am sure that will get the anti-discrimination brigades to man the barricades!
Can someone explain “unauthorized marking of other people’s fund projects”, please? I don’t understand this phrase.
On this page: https://med.wanfangdata.com.cn/Paper/Detail/PeriodicalPaper_zhyxkyglzz202202005
machine translation gives”false signatures or unauthorized signatures” So I’m guessing that “unauthorized signatures” may be applicable here.