Notice of scientific research integrity and academic ethics

 

In order to standardize academic publishing and strengthen academic ethics publicity and education, this editorial department refers to the "Several Opinions on Further Strengthening the Construction of Scientific Research Integrity" issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council (http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2018/content_5299602.htm), excerpts from the notice of the National Science and Technology Development Supervision [2019] No. 323 on printing and distributing the "Rules for the Investigation and Handling of Scientific Research Integrity Cases (Trial)" (http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2019-12/03/content_5457966.htm), as well as the People's Republic of China press and publishing industry standard" Academic Publishing Standards and Definition of Academic Misconduct in Journals" (CY/T 174-2019) and some contents in national standards, for the study and reference of scientific researchers.

 

Part I: Definition and Handling Measures for Research Misconduct

 

1. Definition of scientific research misconduct

 

Behaving in violation of the requirements of scientific research integrity (referred to as scientific research misconduct) refers to actions that occur during scientific research and related activities and that violate the norms and regulations governing scientific research, including:

(1) Copying, plagiarizing, or appropriating others' research results or project application documents;

(2) Fabricating the research process, forging, or altering research data, charts, conclusions, test reports, or user usage reports;

(3) Buying, having someone else write papers or project application documents, or fabricating peer review experts and their opinions;

(4) Obtaining the approval for scientific research activities through fraudulent means such as deliberately providing false information, or through improper means such as bribery or exchange of benefits, to obtain scientific research project (special projects, funds, etc.), research funds, rewards, honors, positions, titles, etc.;

(5) Violating scientific research ethical norms;

(6) Violating the norms for authorship of awards, patents, and other research results, and for publication of papers;

(7) Other acts of scientific research misconduct.

 

2. Measures for handling scientific research misconduct:

 

(1) Warning talk on scientific research integrity;

(2) Public notification or criticism within a certain scope;

(3) Suspension of financial support for scientific research projects and activities, and限期 rectification；

(4) Termination or revocation of relevant scientific research projects funded by the government， recovery of the allocated and remaining funds， revocation of relevant academic awards， honors， professional titles， etc. obtained through scientific misconduct， and return of bonuses；

(5) Suspension or permanent cancellation of the qualifications for applying or submitting applications for science and technology plans， science and technology awards， science and technology talent titles， and professional title promotions；

(6) Revoke the high-level expert titles such as academicians， as well as the membership qualifications of academic associations， research societies， and academic and degree committees；

(7) Suspension or permanent cancellation of the qualifications as nominators or recommenders， nominees or recommended persons， or evaluation experts；

(8) Reduce the recruitment of graduate students， suspend the recruitment of graduate students until the graduate student mentorship qualifications are revoked；

(9) Postpone the awarding of degrees， not awarding degrees， or revoke degrees；

(10) Other handling measures.

 

 

Part 2 Definition of academic misconduct and specific forms of each type

 

1. Definition of academic misconduct

 

(1) Plagiarism: The act of using improper means to steal other people's views, data, images, research methods, written expressions, etc., and publish them in one's own name.

(2) Forgery: The act of fabricating or fabricating data and facts.

(3) Tampering: The act of deliberately modifying data and facts to make them lose their authenticity.

(4) Improper signature: Signature or author ranking behavior that does not match the actual contribution to the paper.

(5) Multiple submissions in one manuscript: the act of submitting the same paper or multiple papers with only minor differences to two or more journals, or transferring them to other journals within the agreed time limit.

(6) Repeated publication: The act of repeatedly publishing content in a document that oneself (or oneself as one of the authors) has published without explanation.

 

2. The specific form of the type of academic misconduct of the author

 

(1) Plagiarism

 

1. Opinion plagiarism

 

Using the views of others without quotation or explanation and publishing them in your own name should be defined as plagiarism. Manifestations of opinion plagiarism include:

a) Directly use arguments, viewpoints, conclusions, etc. from other people's published documents without citations.

b) It is used without quotation after paraphrasing other people's arguments, views, conclusions, etc. without changing its original intention.

c) Use other people's arguments, opinions, conclusions, etc. without quotations.

d) Splitting or reorganizing other people's arguments, opinions, conclusions, etc. and using them without quotations.

e) Add some content to other people's arguments, viewpoints, conclusions, etc. and use them without quotations.

 

2. Data plagiarism

 

Using data from other people's published literature without citation or explanation and publishing it in one's own name should be defined as data plagiarism. Data plagiarism manifests itself in:

a) Use data from other people's published literature directly without citations.

b) Use data from published literature by others with minor modifications and use without citations.  

c) Use data from others' published literature without citations with some additions.

d) The data in other people's published literature is partially deleted and used without citations.

e) Change the original order of data in other people's published literature and use it without citations.

f) Change the presentation of data in other people's published literature and use it without quotations, such as converting a graph into a text representation or converting a text representation into a graph.

 

3. Image and audio and video plagiarism

 

The use of pictures and audio and video in other people's published documents without citation or explanation and publishing them in one's own name should be defined as plagiarism of pictures and audio and video. Image and audio and video plagiarism can take the following forms:

a) Directly use images, audio and video materials from other people's published documents without citation or explanation.

b) Use images and audio and video from published documents by others without citation or explanation.

c) Add some content to the pictures and audio and video of others' published literature and use it without citation or explanation.

d) Use images and audio and video from published documents of others without citation or explanation.

e) Use images from published literature of others without citation or explanation.

f) Use images in published literature without citation or explanation after weakening the content.

 

4. Research (experimental) method plagiarism

 

Using other people's original research (experimental) methods without citation or explanation and publishing them in one's own name should be defined as plagiarism of research (experimental) methods. Research (experimental) methods Plagiarism manifests itself in:

a) Direct use of original research (experimental) methods from other people's published literature without citation or explanation.

b) modifying some non-core elements of original research (experimental) methods in published literature and using them without citation or description.

 

5. Plagiarism in textual expressions

 

Using textual expressions with complete semantics in other people's published documents without citations and publishing them in one's own name should be defined as plagiarism in textual expressions. Manifestations of plagiarism include:

a) Direct use of textual expressions from published literature without citations.

b) The entire paragraph uses text from published literature, although cited, but the text used is not quoted marks, or the font is not changed, or displayed in a specific arrangement.

c) Use of textual expressions from a published document in multiple places, but citation in only one or more places.

d) Continuous use of textual expressions derived from multiple documents with only one or more sources.

e) Paraphrase the text expressions in other people's published documents without citation or change its original intention, including summarizing or deleting the text in other people's published documents, or changing the sentence structure of the text expressions in other people's published documents, or using similar words to replace the text expressions in other people's published documents.

f) Use words and phrases in published literature without quotations.

g) Use words and phrases in published literature without quotations.

 

6. Overall plagiarism

 

The subject of the paper or the subject of a certain part of the paper over-citation or a large number of quotations of other people's published documents should be defined as overall plagiarism. Manifestations of overall plagiarism include:

a) Direct use of all or most of the published literature of others.

b) Publish under your own name after adding some content to the published literature of others, such as supplementing some data or adding some new analysis.

c) Publish under your own name after reducing all or most of the published literature of others.

d) Publish under your own name after replacing the research subject in the published literature of others.

e) Change the structure and paragraph order of other people's published documents and publish them in your own name.

f) Splicing multiple published documents into a single paper for publication.

 

7. Plagiarism of unpublished results by others

 

The use of unpublished opinions of others, original research (experimental) methods, data, pictures, etc., or without permission without explanation shall be defined as plagiarism of unpublished results of others. Manifestations of plagiarism of unpublished work include:

a) Using other people's opinions that have been published but not officially published, original research (experimental) methods, data, pictures, etc. without permission.

b) Obtain permission to use publicly but not officially published opinions, original research (experimental) methods, data, drawings, etc., without citation or thanks.

 

(2) Forgery

 

Manifestations of forgery include:

a) Fabricate data, pictures, etc. that are not obtained through actual investigation or experiment.

b) Falsifying samples that cannot be obtained again through repeated experiments, etc.

c) Fabricate research methods, conclusions, etc. that do not conform to reality or cannot be repeatedly verified.

d) Fabricate materials, annotations, and references to support the paper.

e) Fabricate funding sources for relevant research in the paper.

f) Fabricate reviewer information and review opinions.

 

(3) Tampering

 

Manifestations of tampering include:

a) The original survey records and experimental data that have been modified, selected, deleted, or added without authorization are used to change the original intention of the original survey records and experimental data.

b) Stitching different images to construct unreal images.

c) Removing a part of the picture as a whole or adding some fictional parts to change the interpretation of the picture.

d) Enhance, blur, move specific parts of the picture so that the interpretation of the picture changes.

e) Change the original intent of the cited document to its advantage.

 

(4) Improper signature

 

Manifestations of improper attribution include:

a) Exclude from the list of authors who have made substantial contributions to the research involved in the paper.

b) Signatures from people who have not made substantial contributions to the research involved in the paper.

c) Inclusion in the list of authors without the consent of others.

d) The order of authors does not match their actual contributions to the paper.

e) Provide false author title, unit, academic qualifications, research experience and other information.

 

(5) Multiple submissions of the same manuscript

 

The manifestations of multiple submissions of the same manuscript include:

a) Submitting the same paper to multiple journals simultaneously.

b) Re-submitting the paper to other journals within the agreed response period of the initial submission.

c) Submitting the manuscript to other journals before receiving the formal notification from the journal confirming the retraction.

d) Submitting multiple papers with only minor differences to multiple journals simultaneously.

e) Making slight modifications to the paper before submitting it to other journals either before receiving the response from the initial submission journal or within the agreed period.

f) Submitting one's own (or one's paper as one of the authors) published paper without any explanation, either in its original form or with minor modifications, again for submission.

 

(6) Repeated publication

 

Manifestations of duplicate publications include:

a) Use content from your (or yourself) published literature in your paper without citations or explanations.

b) Without any explanation, extract parts of your (or as one of the authors) published documents and stitch them into a new paper and publish them again.

c) Permitted secondary publications do not indicate the source of the first publication.

d) Reuse data from a survey, an experiment, etc. in multiple papers without citation or explanation.

e) Papers based on the same experiment or research, after adding a small amount of data or information each time, publish papers with similar or similar methods and conclusions multiple times.

f) Collaborators publish papers with obviously similar or similar data, methods, conclusions, etc. on the same investigation, experiment, results, etc.

 

(7) Violating research ethics

 

The research involved in the paper does not obtain ethical approval in accordance with the regulations, or exceeds the scope of ethical approval, or violates the norms of research ethics, which should be defined as violating research ethics. Manifestations of violations of research ethics include:

a) The research involved in the paper has not obtained the corresponding ethical approval as required, or the corresponding approval certificate cannot be provided.

b) The research involved in the paper is beyond the scope of ethical approval.

c) The research involved in the paper has problems that violate research ethics, such as improperly harming research participants, abusing living experimental subjects, and violating the principle of informed consent.

d) The paper leaks the privacy of the subject or the person being investigated.

e) The paper does not explain the conflict of interest in the research involved as required.

 

(8) Other academic misconduct

 

Other academic misconduct includes:

a) Add unreferenced literature to the references.

b) Mark citations from other documents as direct citations, including quotations from translated works as citations from original works.

c) Failure to explain and acknowledge research funds, experimental equipment, materials, data, ideas, undisclosed information, etc. provided by others in an appropriate manner (except for special requirements).

d) Failing to disclose key information of papers to others or society as agreed infringes on the first publication rights of submitting journals.

e) Use copyrighted literature that requires permission without permission.

f) When using copyrighted documents shared by multiple people, without the consent of all copyright holders.

g) Use other people's copyrighted documents with permission without citations, or incomplete information about the cited documents.

h) The use of other people's copyrighted documents with permission exceeds the scope or purpose of the permitted use.

i) Interfere with journal editors and reviewers in non-anonymous review procedures.

j) Recommend reviewers with whom you have interests to the editor.

k) Entrust a third-party organization or others unrelated to the content of the paper to write, submit or edit on behalf of others.

l) publishing papers in violation of confidentiality regulations.

 

3. The specific form of the types of academic misconduct of reviewers

 

(1) Evaluation that violates academic ethics

 

Condoning academic misconduct in the review of papers, or reviewing based on non-academic factors, should be defined as a review that violates academic ethics. Manifestations of judging against academic ethics include:

a) Turn a blind eye to the actual defects and academic misconduct in the manuscripts found.

b) Opinions are submitted based on non-academic factors such as the author's nationality, gender, ethnicity, status, region, and nature of the organization, as well as the scientific value, originality, and quality of the paper, as well as its relevance to the scope and purpose of the journal.

 

(2) Interfering with the review process

 

Deliberately delaying the review process or improperly influencing the publication decision should be defined as interfering with the review process. Interference with the review process can take the form of:

a) Unable to complete the review but refusing to review or negotiate with the journal in a timely manner.

b) Unreasonably delaying the review process.

c) Direct contact with authors without the journal's permission in a non-anonymous review process.

d) Privately influence editors and influence decisions to publish.

 

(3) Violation of conflict of interest provisions

 

Not disclosing or concealing the interests of the authors of the reviewed papers, or deliberately recommending other reviewers who have interests in a specific manuscript, etc., shall be defined as violations of conflict of interest provisions. Manifestations of conflict of interest violations include:

a) Failure to explain to editors a conflict of interest that may exclude them from the review process.

b) Recommend other reviewers to editors who may or may have a potential conflict of interest with a particular manuscript.

c) Unfairly review papers by authors with conflicts of interest.

 

(4) Violation of confidentiality regulations

 

Sharing or using the content of the reviewed manuscript with others without authorization, or disclosing the content of the unpublished manuscript, shall be defined as a violation of confidentiality provisions. Breaches of confidentiality include:

a) Sharing the content of the reviewed manuscript with others outside of the review process.

b) Unauthorized publication of unpublished manuscript content or research results.

c) Unauthorized use of the reviewed manuscript for purposes unrelated to the review process.

 

(5) Misappropriation of manuscript content

 

Unauthorized use of the content of the self-reviewed and unpublished manuscript, or the use of the content of the licensed unpublished manuscript without citation or explanation, shall be defined as misappropriation of the content of the reviewed manuscript. Manifestations of misappropriation of the content of the reviewed manuscript include:

a) Use the content of your reviewed and unpublished manuscript without the permission of the author or editor.

b) Use the content of the reviewed and unpublished manuscript without citation or explanation with the permission of the author or editor of the paper.

 

(6) Seeking improper benefits

 

The use of confidential information and the right of review for one's own benefit should be defined as seeking improper benefits. Manifestations of seeking improper benefits include:

a) Use confidential information for personal or professional gain.

b) Using the right to review for improper benefits.

 

(7) Other academic misconduct

 

Other academic misconduct includes:

a) The reviewed paper is found to have research ethics issues but is not informed to the journal in a timely manner.

b) Ask others to review on their behalf without authorization.