China research misconduct crackdown follows viral videos by “Student Geng”

China’s state funding agency has reprimanded and penalized four senior academics and their colleagues after a social-media detective highlighted data anomalies in published research papers.

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) announced on 28 August that it had found violations ranging from data fabrication to data falsification in four papers.

The academics and their colleagues have been prohibited from applying for NSFC funding, either individually or as part of a team, for between three and seven years. The agency also cancelled funded research projects related to three of the four papers and withdrew funding that it had already distributed.

Geng Hongwei, a video blogger known online as “Student Geng”, said the severity of the punishment was what he expected. He also said he was “a little proud” that his efforts, which were featured in a series of viral videos, had prompted an official response.

NSFC identifies wider research misconduct

The penalties are part of a broader crackdown on research misconduct by the NSFC, which identified 31 research groups and institutions in its statement. Other violations included buying and selling data, plagiarism and misuse of research funds.

The NSFC statement did not reveal the titles of the papers. Nature journalists confirmed that all four were published in 2016. Two were retracted on 29 July, while the others carry editor’s notes acknowledging concerns about their data.

Geng said the main reason that all of the papers he had questioned were published in Nature-branded journals was that those journals require researchers to make raw data available, making it possible for him to investigate the work.

The careers and news team at Nature is independent from the journal’s research section and its publisher, Springer Nature. Erika Pastrana, vice-president of Nature Research and Reviews, said: “Every paper reported will be investigated.” The journal will “provide an update on the paper, along with an editor’s note, once the investigation is complete.”

Who is “Student Geng”?

Geng scrutinized four scholars and their papers in videos that went viral in April and May. At the time, all four held senior positions at universities in China and had received prestigious NSFC grants.

The academics named in the case are:

• Wang Ping, former dean of the College of Life Science and Technology at Tongji University in Shanghai.
• Chen Quan, former dean of the School of Life Sciences at Nankai University in Tianjin.
• Quan Dongming, former vice-dean of the School of Life Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.
• Su Jiacan, former director of the Institute of Translational Medicine at Shanghai University.

Before the NSFC’s announcement, the universities had already investigated the academics and taken disciplinary action, including removing them from their positions as deans.

Nature journalists contacted the scientists for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

The NSFC announcement did not say whether the penalties were a response to Geng’s videos. Geng said he had submitted formal requests to the NSFC asking it to investigate each of the four papers and that the agency had personally notified him of its findings. Nature was unable to independently verify this claim.

Geng’s videos triggered a public backlash in China and attracted international media attention. One video criticizing the four papers received nearly 9 million views on the Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili.

Funding ban could have lasting consequences

The NSFC’s punishment is “very harsh”, said Tayu Huang, a higher-education policy researcher at Hiroshima University in Higashihiroshima.

“For front-line researchers, the NSFC funding ban can make it extremely difficult to maintain labs, recruit students and staff, and continue major research projects,” Huang said. “The reputational damage could be even more serious.”

Sun Ping, editor-in-chief of the International Research Cooperation Information Platform, a Beijing-based website that provides information on research-integrity policies and best practices, said such punishments are not necessarily career-ending, particularly for junior researchers accused of minor violations.

Those academics can participate in research as team members rather than as laboratory leaders, Sun noted.

Since April, Geng has criticized several other prominent academics on social media, claiming that their papers also contained falsified data. Some of those papers have correction notices but have not been retracted. It remains unclear whether the other scientists named by Geng will be formally investigated by their universities or the NSFC.