Chinese Journals Plagued by Plagiarism

When a Chinese research journal became the first in China to be subjected to CrossCheck text analysis software, it was found to be chock full of plagiarized articles. 31 percent of papers were discovered to be characterized by unreasonable copying and plagiarism overall, with 40% in computer science and life sciences. Part of the explanation is thought to lie in certain aspects of Chinese culture, which emphasizes rote memorization and repetition and regards the copying a teacher’s work as a learning technique. Also, the rigid hierarchical nature of Chinese academic bureaucracies means that an accusation of misconduct directed at a high-ranking researcher by an underling will not be taken seriously.