Scientists are under increasing pressure to publish journal papers, commentators say (Image: iStockphoto)
Posted on 05/16/2006 6:30:13 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The scandal of a Chinese scientist who lied about his inventions is just the tip of the iceberg in an academic environment where, analysts say, incentives to cheat are great and the risk of being found out is small.
Professor Chen Jin, dean of the microelectronics school at the prestigious Shanghai Jiaotong University, was fired after a government investigation found he had faked research on his Hanxin series of digital signal processing chips, authorities announce.
The research was seen as an important step in helping China wean itself off reliance on foreign technology.
But a two-month investigation found Chen's chips could not perform the functions he claimed, according to the Xinhua news agency. And he used another company's research and claimed it as his own.
The case was discovered only after a colleague blew the whistle and after Chen, 37, had received large grants from the government and was praised as one of the country's top young scientists.
Analysts say the case shows there are many pitfalls as the government strives to encourage its top schools and industries to come up with their own technological inventions to help the country catch up with the West.
Pressure on scientists and academics is also intense, leading some to take shortcuts, analysts say.
"In the past, academics were evaluated through a long process of monitoring their work. Nowadays ... there is pressure to show results quickly," says Dr Fan Peilei, a Chinese postdoctoral fellow at the UN University in Yokohama, Japan, who specialises in China's high-tech industries.
"The salary now is based on how many papers you issue, what new inventions you come up with."
But there is no domestic or overseas system to scrutinise Chinese researchers' work, Fan says.
"In Western countries, it's very open. With Chinese research, partly due to the language problem and lack of recognition that China can invent anything good, there is no one properly checking the work," she says.
"If there's some claim that some scientist invented something, there's no proper international review system ... The domestic supervision system is also not mature."
Looking to the West
An unnamed internet commentator says online that the root of the problem is China is too anxious to catch up with technologically advanced countries.
"Few people ... recognise reaching the level of the West is a long-term process," he says.
There are fears the case could bring Chinese inventions into disrepute.
"This will have a negative impact on the whole chip industry," says Zhang Ming, of Hangzhou Guoxin, a company that develops computer chips for satellites and cable TV.
The government's current five-year plan for the 2006-2010 period places special emphasis on developing an innovation-driven economy to rely less on simply being the world's factory for low-cost goods.
At the same time, complaints about academic corruption have been more vocal and there are signs that the government is waking up to the problem.
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Scientists are under increasing pressure to publish journal papers, commentators say (Image: iStockphoto)
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The PRC's Mandate of Heaven has expired.
Didn't I hear that the Doc in question sanded the tops off AMD chips, and silk-screened his own manufacturing data on top?
Part of the problem of Capital/Communism. Centralized bureaucracy and open entrepreneurship don't mesh.
He would have to alter the digital signature that indentifies the chip unless he wasn't worried about detection. All he did was the equivalent of re-labeling a CD, but then again China is very good at that sort of thing.
How capitalist of them.........
Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad........
I guess if you cant invent it, then steal it from someone else....
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