Ethics education crucial in promoting academic integrity

A senior academician said on Friday that the ethics training that the country's current crop of researchers received at the beginning of their careers is crucial for China's continued drive to develop and innovate within its scientific industries. Chen Yiyu, director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), made the remarks during a symposium on combating academic misconduct held in Beijing on Friday. Academic misconduct has plagued the country for years and damaged the image of scientists both at home and abroad. The country's academic integrity has not been fully upheld, and ethics education has not been included in the curriculum of most universities and senior institutions, said Chen, who is also director of the moral construction committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), a government think tank. "Many young researchers are unclear about the 'dos and don'ts' of conducting scientific research," he said at the symposium, which was attended by more than 100 experts and officials from the CAS, the NSFC, the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), as well as the ministries of education, science and technology. Chen called for further analysis of the causes of academic misconduct. Academic integrity and scientific ethics in China have improved in recent years, but some problems still remain, according to Han Qide, chairman of the CAST national committee.