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Getting to the root of the problem of academic plagiarism
By Wan Linxin |
March 19, 2009, Thursday
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CHINESE academic journals have started using anti-plagiarism software to deter rampant academic plagiarism, according to a recent Xinhua report.
This news came in the wake of a statement on Sunday by Zhejiang University that it would fire an associate professor guilty of plagiarism.
The Oriental Morning Post also reported yesterday that Shanghai would hold a conference this week to announce the disciplinary measures taken against some researchers guilty of plagiarism.
The use of anti-plagiarism software suggests human naivete in an age of increasing technological sophistication, and could not be a more depressing commentary on the state of human affairs.
A single-minded determination to secure promotion and prestige at whatever cost is at the root of the growing number of academic scandals.
China has experimented with market reforms for nearly three decades, but ironically the most thoroughgoing market-oriented reforms are manifested in the monetization of education, the judiciary and medicine.
This is deplorable, because educators, legal workers, and medical practitioners are expected to be guided by their conscience and their heart.
As a result of the specialized nature of their service, these people can be dangerous if their "holy fire" of idealism is extinguished.
As a consequence, a teacher can moralize with his hands in his pupils' pocket, a lawyer can defend a criminal for a fee, and a doctor can extort money from a dying patient.
The other day my wife told me some elementary school teachers give after-class tutoring at their own homes, including a supper, as a consideration for busy parents - of course, at no modest an investment by parents.
This is a clever way of extorting "cash for scores," for who has a better say than a teacher in deciding their pupils' scores?
Hangzhou-based Qianjiang Evening News reported on Monday that from 2004 to 2007 authorities at a middle school affiliated with Guangxi University had built a pile of 16 million yuan (US$2.4 million) just by encouraging parents to buy scores for their children.
Some recommend a severe punishment for the guilty as effective deterrents, but it is easy to see that it is extremely difficult, and expensive, to punish these people.
Occasionally a corrupt official may face the death penalty if he steals too much. For instance, former Suzhou vice mayor Jiang Renjie was sentenced to death last year for taking over 100 million yuan in bribes, but I have not heard of any researchers imprisoned, not to say executed, for academic thefts.
Fraud and theft among academics and lawyers are a low-risk, high-return investment.
Statistics from Sweden suggest that in 2001 local authorities dealt with 100 cases of academic frauds. The figure doubled three years later, and soared to 480 in 2006.
But even given our current degree of depravity, we should still resist the temptation of software.
As a matter of fact, an assessment method superstitiously believed to be "scientific and objective" is partly to blame for fueling the Sanlu contaminated milk scandal, and this fact has not been appreciated sufficiently.
So far, the overwhelming public ire has been directed at the "black-hearted" milk collectors who added melamine to the milk to inflate the protein readings.
I have yet to see any fingers pointing at the testing method that calculates protein content indirectly by testing the amount of the nitrogen in the milk.
Similarly a researcher steals because the number of the articles published are seen as the indicator of his professional excellence.
There is an urgency to scrap this scientific but distorting assessment regime.
This news came in the wake of a statement on Sunday by Zhejiang University that it would fire an associate professor guilty of plagiarism.
The Oriental Morning Post also reported yesterday that Shanghai would hold a conference this week to announce the disciplinary measures taken against some researchers guilty of plagiarism.
The use of anti-plagiarism software suggests human naivete in an age of increasing technological sophistication, and could not be a more depressing commentary on the state of human affairs.
A single-minded determination to secure promotion and prestige at whatever cost is at the root of the growing number of academic scandals.
China has experimented with market reforms for nearly three decades, but ironically the most thoroughgoing market-oriented reforms are manifested in the monetization of education, the judiciary and medicine.
This is deplorable, because educators, legal workers, and medical practitioners are expected to be guided by their conscience and their heart.
As a result of the specialized nature of their service, these people can be dangerous if their "holy fire" of idealism is extinguished.
As a consequence, a teacher can moralize with his hands in his pupils' pocket, a lawyer can defend a criminal for a fee, and a doctor can extort money from a dying patient.
The other day my wife told me some elementary school teachers give after-class tutoring at their own homes, including a supper, as a consideration for busy parents - of course, at no modest an investment by parents.
This is a clever way of extorting "cash for scores," for who has a better say than a teacher in deciding their pupils' scores?
Hangzhou-based Qianjiang Evening News reported on Monday that from 2004 to 2007 authorities at a middle school affiliated with Guangxi University had built a pile of 16 million yuan (US$2.4 million) just by encouraging parents to buy scores for their children.
Some recommend a severe punishment for the guilty as effective deterrents, but it is easy to see that it is extremely difficult, and expensive, to punish these people.
Occasionally a corrupt official may face the death penalty if he steals too much. For instance, former Suzhou vice mayor Jiang Renjie was sentenced to death last year for taking over 100 million yuan in bribes, but I have not heard of any researchers imprisoned, not to say executed, for academic thefts.
Fraud and theft among academics and lawyers are a low-risk, high-return investment.
Statistics from Sweden suggest that in 2001 local authorities dealt with 100 cases of academic frauds. The figure doubled three years later, and soared to 480 in 2006.
But even given our current degree of depravity, we should still resist the temptation of software.
As a matter of fact, an assessment method superstitiously believed to be "scientific and objective" is partly to blame for fueling the Sanlu contaminated milk scandal, and this fact has not been appreciated sufficiently.
So far, the overwhelming public ire has been directed at the "black-hearted" milk collectors who added melamine to the milk to inflate the protein readings.
I have yet to see any fingers pointing at the testing method that calculates protein content indirectly by testing the amount of the nitrogen in the milk.
Similarly a researcher steals because the number of the articles published are seen as the indicator of his professional excellence.
There is an urgency to scrap this scientific but distorting assessment regime.
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