China issues rules banning dishonesty in science publishing

BEIJING — Chinese regulators overseeing the field of academic publishing for scientific articles have rules explicitly banning dishonest practices.

The directive, issued on Wednesday, forbids Chinese scientists from using a third party to write journal articles, using a third party to submit articles, hiring a third party to substantially revise articles, providing fake peer review information, or giving authorship to scientists who have not substantially contributed to the research.

The directive from the country’s leading science organizations and ministries comes after several international science journals this year rejected or retracted submissions from Chinese scientists, citing academic dishonesty. The scandals raised concerns about the credibility of China’s scientists.

Berlin-based publisher Springer announced in August that it had retracted 64 articles — nearly all by Chinese authors — for false peer reviews.