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Prior days' news: By date | Search This week's print issue Back issues: By date | Search December 21, 2007Yale Professor at Peking U. Assails Widespread Plagiarism in ChinaA Yale University professor has written a stern letter expressing concern about widespread plagiarism by students he taught at Peking University this fall. “The fact that I have encountered this much plagiarism … tells me something about the behavior of other professors and administrators here,” Stephen Stearns, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, wrote to his students. “They must tolerate a lot of it, and when they detect it, they cover it up without serious punishment, probably because they do not want to lose face. If they did punish it, it would not be this frequent.” Plagiarism and other forms of academic corruption have been common in Chinese higher education for years, even as the authorities try to raise academic standards. Mr. Stearns went on to attack the lack of protection for intellectual-property rights in China, even citing the pirating of his own textbook by Peking University itself, a premier Chinese institution that is often called Beida. “Disturbingly, plagiarism fits into a larger pattern of behavior in China,” he wrote. “China ignores international intellectual-property rights. Beida sees nothing wrong in copying my textbook, for example, in complete violation of international copyright agreements, causing me to lose income, stealing from me quite directly.” Chinese translations of the strongly worded letter, titled “To My Students in Beijing, Fall 2007,” quickly spread around the Chinese-language Internet. It was also published on New Threads, a Chinese Web site that reports cases of plagiarism in China. (The English original follows the Chinese translation.) The headline on New Threads says, “The loss of face goes international: Yale University Professor Stearns rebukes PKU students for the prevalence of plagiarism.” —Paul Mooney Posted on Friday December 21, 2007 | Permalink |Comments
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Although there is no doubt a level of corruption, it has more to do with a culture to which copyright and trademark are for the moment incomprehensible, much the same way as American Indians did not understand the concept of privately owned land. If a Chinese company invents a product and gives it a name, it is not unusual or illegal for several other companies to produce the same product with the same name. All new things immediately become public domain.
— marci Dec 21, 03:50 PM #
Perhaps Prof. Stearns should be the new president of Southern Illinois University.
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i48/48a01001.htm
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i05/05a02901.htm
— CU Alum Dec 21, 04:44 PM #
How sanctimonious!
What moral scruples allowed Great Britain to exploit the entire Asian continent for a couple hundred years? How do we explain that half the U.S. Marine Corps was somewhere in South America at any given moment between 1890 and 1960 – setting up one corrupt regime after another?
And now, all of a sudden, morality/legality come into play. (Not that the two have ever had anything to do with one another in this country).
China is under no obligation to play by rules we invented to benefit ourselves. They are simply playing the game we taught them – get while the getting is good.
Ain’t capitalism a b***h? Especially when the Commies are using it to sell us Kruschev’s rope?
China literally owns us now, best get used to playing by their rules.
— Sarge Dec 21, 08:57 PM #
If Marci and Sarge are so willing to defend Chinese cheating, then I wonder why they don’t go there to live, rather than stay here and continue to enjoy the benefits of capitalism and copyright. China will pay, eventually.
— Mike Dec 22, 01:44 PM #
Brilliant argument Mike. Anybody who has ever defended a certain different way they do things somewhere else obviously should move there if its so great. Two can play at this game: If you love copyright so much, why don’t you marry it?
Also forcing other countries to embrace anti-market intellectual property laws has nothing to do with capitalism.
— Ben Darrington Dec 22, 03:21 PM #
Mike: Ahh, the old love it or l
eave it b.s. is still alive and well.
I got a belly-full of that crap when I lived in Orange County, California. I hated it then and I hate it now.
— Donald E. Winters, Ph.D. Dec 23, 11:23 AM #
Interesting that most the comments have been defending China (& others) of ignoring copyrighted material. Yet the main thrust of the story (see the headline) was over Chinese students plagarizing works to submit as their own. Can ANY of the responders support these actions? Why not just allow American students to plagarize works with the excuse they are following Chinese “tradition”?
Of course, having an entire generation of Chinese students go through their system of higher education copying the works of others means the U.S. shouldn’t worry about Chinese innovations over-shadowing our lead in any fields.
— Gary Dec 24, 11:51 AM #
Gary: As I read Mike and Sarge’s comments, I don’t see folks defending plagiarism in China. Rather, what I see are writers who are opposed to American hypocritical attitudes about the matter. Also there is also the embarrassingly reactionary message in both of them that if people seem to be defending the Chinese, why don’t they move there. Why not leave the “love it or leave it” crap to the John Birch Society.
— Donald E. Winters, Ph.D. Dec 24, 12:22 PM #
Gary: As I read Mike and Sarge’s comments, I don’t see folks opposing plagiarism in China. Rather, what I see are writers who are opposed to American hypocritical attitudes about the matter. Also there is also the embarrassingly reactionary message in both of them that if people seem to be defending the Chinese, why don’t they move there. Why not leave the “love it or leave it” crap to the John Birch Society. Please ignore errors on the first version. The word should have been “oppose.” (I was up writing unitl 3 and am somewhat punchy”
— Donald E. Winters, Ph.D. Dec 24, 12:26 PM #
Don’t forget: China was isolated by western countries for decades. It is not fair to ask China to follow all the rules set by the isolaters immediately.
If someone has been forced to be a slave for decades, how can he be expected to become a gentleman immediately?
Student plagiarim is bad, to their classrmates. It’s not fair for students who work really hard by themselves.
— Frank Dec 26, 10:08 PM #
China has lost its morality in many different aspect, not only in education. It is just like a bus without driver. It’s very dangerous for China, as well as for the world.
We need the courage to face the problem and recover what we have lost, instead of blaming others who pointed out this issue.
— kitty wang Dec 27, 02:12 AM #
I can confirm this kind of nasty behavior in China because I came from China. I would say not only higher education, but also government agencies, married couples, friends, medical services, police, justice, almost the entire society. Therefore, when people talk about Chinese superpower, I believe it is a joke.
For all the professors looking for academic collaborations with China, you’d better think it again. Before hiring or inviting a Chinese visiting scholar, please be advised they might get their degree through, say 80%, of cheating.
— Lijian Chen Dec 27, 03:51 AM #
I doubt Stephen Stearns’s sincerity in fighting against violation of intellectual property right. This is because he was involved in a much greater and even more shameful violation of intellectual property.
In a 2003 publication in Science (300: 1920) which was authored by his former student Martin Ackermann, himself, and his former colleague in Switzerland he cheated the whole world by claiming that “A fundamental question about senescence has not been settled: Which organisms should be senescent, and which should be potentially immortal?” This is an outright lie because I had already published a view that all organisms (including the so-called “immortal” bacteria) are mortal and subject to aging/senescence (see more details at http://im1.biz/Aging.htm).
Due to the deception buried in that 2003 Science publication, western world has regarded Ackermann, Stearns and Jenal as pioneers in studying bacterial aging. But the truth is I was the true pioneer in this research area and has published most on this topic. Jenal (who later became a mentor of Ackermann) should know my study because he was at the same session of the 1997 ASM General Meeting where I presented my discovery of bacterial life and aging to the world for the first time. However, my publications, including a peer-reviewed and SCI-indexed publication in both English (Science in China 42: 64-654, 1999) and Chinese (Science in China 29: 571-579, 1999), were ignored (very likely intentionally) by Ackermann, Stearns and Jenal in their 2003 Science publication. I should also point out that the methodology used in that 2003 Science study was an exact “copy” of my method invention disclose in my 2000 patent application which was open to public in 2002 and granted a US patent in 2004 (US6767734B).
In August this year, I wrote to Ackermann and others (including Stearns) to ask them to do some right things for the truth of scientific history and the respect for others’ intellectual property right after I saw Ackermann et al. continued their lie to the world in another publication (Aging Cell 6: 235-244, 2007). However, none of these “scientists” have answered my criticisms or done any right things so far.
Thus, I was very surprised to see that Stearns would be so “upset” with the “plagiarism” he saw in the term papers submitted to him by the Chinese students. If he does upheld a high ethical standard, why would not he do anything moral regarding his outright lie and credit robbery?
Shi V. Liu
Eagle Institute of Molecular Medicine
SVL@logibio.com
http://im1.biz
http://im1.biz/albums/userpics/10001/SE2007V2N3A5_StopLie.htm
http://im1.biz/albums/userpics/10001/SE2007V2N3A5_StopLie.pdf
— Shi V. Liu Dec 29, 12:20 PM #
Fascinating vitriol. A little perspective. “Plagiarism” begins when Chinese students first start to write. They are taught that it is good to include the works of others in your own writing – particularly the work of famous writers and poets – because it is a compliment to the original author’s efforts. The concept of quotation and sourcing is not art of the education, but copying is not taught or meant maliciously. Young students in China learn the writing of their great poets and writers, often by heart, and it becomes a common experience, part of the glue that holds this large country together.
There is no offset to this learned copying. Some of the commentators touched on the reasons: the concept of plagiarism and “intellectual property” is not part of the culture. Hardly surprising given the history of feudal China when “ownership” was a royal concept, and the more modern Communist period when the state owned everything. The problem is now when the National Government has recognized the need to reform the education system and made reform a priority. But as anyone who slogs through the bogs of academia can attest, changing an academic culture is roughly equivalent to running an outboard motor through a sea of molasses on a cold January morning.
I teach Journalism in an unusual Chinese University where students are taught plagiarism is unacceptable, and is grounds for dismissal. The students are astounded at first, but they get it just as quickly. It may be an easier lesson for a journalist. We had a faculty member who plagiarized, despite the “new” rules. He resigned within 24 hours and much to our amazement we became a national news story that asked: Why are other Chinese universities protecting their faculty who plagiarize? This is not an E-W issue, or a cultural issue. Ask any scientist what plagiarism can mean to scientific research. Look at the debate Prof. Stearns stirred vis-a-vis his own conduct? I have yet to meet a Chinese academic who defends the notion of plagiarism. But we all agree change will come about slowly.
But best to keep plagiarism and intellectual property rights as separate debates, all be they related.
Peter M. Herford
Shantou University
— Peter M Herford Dec 29, 08:48 PM #
funny to talk morality and politic about cheating, because it is Politic and morality course, from every chinese student’s childhood ,told them you must copy what “they” want you to say, because you are not allowed to think yourself.
this kind of courses force us from childhood to doctoral entering exam.
and this kind of cheating continue all the life of a Chinese.
I’m a chinese student. I know for many chinese, not only student, cheating is just a way to survive under the big brother’s watching.
——-I mean this is the context. how they(us!) get use of it, and love it.
— z Jan 9, 10:10 AM #