School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
Shanghai Health Development Research Center, Shanghai, 200040, China.
Sci Eng Ethics. 2023 Nov 22;29(6):39. doi: 10.1007/s11948-023-00459-9.
As stewards of public money, government funding agencies have the obligation and responsibility to uphold the integrity of funded research. Despite an increasing amount of empirical studies examining research-related misconduct, a majority of these studies focus on retracted publications. How agencies spot funding-relevant wrongdoing and what sanctions the offenders face remain largely unexplored. This is particularly true for public funding agencies in emerging science powers. To amend this oversight, we retrieved and analyzed all publicized investigation results from China's largest basic research funding agency over the period from 2005 to 2021. Our findings reveal that both the "police patrol" and "fire alarm" approaches are used to identify misconduct and deter funding-related fraud in China. The principal triggers for investigations are journal article retractions, whistleblowing, and plagiarism detection software. Among the six funding-related misconduct types publicized and punished, the top three are: (1) fraudulent papers, (2) information fabrication and/or falsification in the research proposal, and (3) proposal plagiarism. The most common administrative sanctions are debarment and reclamation of grants. This article argues that more systematic research and cooperation among stakeholders is needed to cultivate research integrity in emerging science powers like China. Specific training and education should be provided for young scientists to help them avoid the pitfall of academic misconduct.
作为公共资金的管理者，政府资助机构有义务和责任维护受资助研究的诚信。尽管越来越多的实证研究检验了与研究相关的不当行为，但这些研究大多集中在撤回的出版物上。机构如何发现与资助相关的不当行为，以及违规者面临什么制裁，在很大程度上仍未得到探索。对于新兴科学大国的公共资助机构来说，尤其如此。为了弥补这一疏忽，我们检索并分析了中国最大的基础研究资助机构在 2005 年至 2021 年期间公布的所有调查结果。我们的研究结果表明，中国既采用“警察巡逻”，也采用“火警”方法来识别不当行为并防止与资助相关的欺诈。调查的主要触发因素是期刊文章撤回、举报和抄袭检测软件。在公布和惩罚的六种与资助相关的不当行为类型中，排名前三的是：（1）伪造论文，（2）研究计划中的信息捏造和/或伪造，（3）计划抄袭。最常见的行政制裁是取消资格和追回拨款。本文认为，需要在新兴科学大国（如中国）的利益相关者之间进行更系统的研究和合作，以培养研究诚信。应该为青年科学家提供具体的培训和教育，帮助他们避免学术不当行为的陷阱。
