Fraud Scandals Sap China’s Dream of Becoming a Science Superpower<br />We still haven’t figured out how to do that yet." In April, a scientific journal retracted 107 biology research papers, the vast majority of them written by Chinese authors, after evidence emerged<br />that they had faked glowing reviews of their articles.<br />Some journals — including Tumor Biology, which retracted the 107 articles — go so far as to ask the authors<br />themselves to suggest peers to write these reviews, a fact that critics say opened the door to fraud.<br />Since 2012, the country has retracted more scientific papers because of faked peer reviews than all other countries and territories put together, according to Retraction Watch, a blog<br />that tracks and seeks to publicize retractions of research papers.<br />Many say that appears to have been the case with Han Chunyu, a scientist at Hebei University of Science and Technology who made a big splash last year by claiming<br />that he had found a new way to edit human genes — a technique that could one day make it possible to eliminate hereditary diseases, or allow parents to tailor their unborn children’s height or I.Q.<br />But fraud appears to be especially widespread in Chinese academic institutions,<br />as seen in the large number of retracted articles and faked peer reviews.<br />This apparently allowed the authors, or more often writers hired by the authors, to pose as academic peers,<br />and write positive reviews that would help get their own papers published.
