'Academic' humiliated U. of Tokyo

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Turkish national Serkan Anilir, recently stripped of the doctorate he obtained from the University of Tokyo over plagiarism and falsifying his resume, used that powerful badge of authority to take advantage not just of the institution that gave him the degree but of other universities and research institutes as well.

This is the first time in the history of the University of Tokyo, this country's most prestigious university, that a doctorate has been rescinded.

On Monday, university President Junichi Hamada, apparently feeling a strong sense of crisis, talked about measures to prevent a similar incident from occurring again, such as by applying tougher penalties for plagiarism.

Anilir received his doctorate in 2003 and became an assistant professor at the university in 2007. His position as a University of Tokyo PhD and an assistant professor allowed him to enjoy popularity as a distinguished researcher in this country.

The university was not aware of the Anilir's plagiarism and fabrication of his resume until suspicions became a hot topic on the Internet around September 2009 and the university received similar information from anonymous informants.

By then, Anilir had been hired as a researcher and part-time lecturer at research institutions and other universities. He was extensively covered in the mass media.

Anilir even had a certificate saying he was the first Turkish candidate to be an astronaut with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, although NASA has confirmed he was never in consideration.

The A-4 size "certificate," the existence of which has been confirmed by the Turkish Embassy in Tokyo, was written in English, not Turkish. It bore the name of the Turkish Transportation and Communication Ministry as the issuer.

It even has a signature of an actual ranking official of the ministry, but the embassy discovered the certificate was a fake after making inquiries in Turkey via fax.

In addition to a University of Tokyo PhD in engineering and the first Turkish astronaut candidate, Anilir also described himself as a gold medalist in a European under-20 junior skiing competition, a claim rejected by Turkish officials.

He also claims he participated in the 1988 Nagano Winter Olympics as a coach for the Turkish ski team. This too was denied by his home country.

"We used to check the careers [of doctoral candidates], but we simplified the process due to an increase in the number of doctoral theses and a shortage of manpower," Hamada said.

As it is impossible for the university to thoroughly check the careers of applicants in its current circumstances, it has to rely on the consciences of the researchers who have submitted theses, he said.

Anilir's doctoral dissertation was examined by five instructors of the university's Graduate School of Engineering, according to the university. Their evaluations were later compiled by the instructor in charge of advising Anilir at their laboratory.

"There are merits to a candidate's thesis adviser compiling the results," Hamada said.

However, he also said the university would study whether it is appropriate that Anilir's adviser was in charge of his doctoral dissertation and that no third persons were involved in the reviewing process.

The university may punish those concerned if it finds problems with the examination process of the dissertation, he added.

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Personal relations emphasized

"There may be problems with the environment that make it difficult to spot plagiarism," an official at the Higher Education Bureau of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry said when asked about the insufficient examination of Anilir's doctoral thesis.

The Central Council for Education asked universities in its 2005 proposal on graduate school education to introduce measures to increase transparency in awarding degrees, such as employing third persons from outside of universities to examine theses and dissertations.

According to ministry research, 89 percent of graduate school courses employed examination committee members from outside of universities in fiscal 2008, up from 54 percent in fiscal 2007. However, only 9 percent of the courses said advisers were not involved in the examination process.

Akita International University President Mineo Nakajima, who compiled the 2005 council report, said that in the United States candidates' academic achievements and the contents of their research are strictly examined. Advisers usually are not in charge of compiling the results of examinations of doctoral dissertations, he said.

"In Japan, candidates' personal relations with instructors or professors are sometimes valued more highly than the quality of dissertations. All universities have to review their systems for awarding degrees," Nakajima added.

Tokyo Univ. to crack down on plagiarism in theses

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The University of Tokyo will overhaul its thesis examination process and throw the book at anyone found to have plagiarized other people's work, according to the university president.

The tighter screening and tougher penalties come after the university last month effectively dismissed a Turkish assistant professor and revoked his doctorate after finding he had falsified his academic credentials and plagiarized major portions of his doctoral thesis.

The university had never previously revoked a doctorate degree it had conferred.

University President Junichi Hamada told The Yomiuri Shimbun that the university had simplified its screening and background checks of people applying for degrees in recent years.

"This is an unbelievable situation. We'll pinpoint where the problem lies and make the results of our review public," he said.

The university has established an investigation committee and is questioning teachers and officials who screened the researcher's thesis about their examination of his academic record and thesis.

On March 2, the university revoked the doctorate in engineering that had been conferred in March 2003 to Serkan Anilir, an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Engineering.

Anilir, 37, had plagiarized about 40 percent of the data and other parts of his thesis, according to the university.

Anilir also had falsely claimed to have graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology in the United States and Istanbul Technical University in Turkey.

According to the university, Anilir admitted in February that he had plagiarized theses.

He was given the equivalent of a disciplinary dismissal.

A woman who had been Anilir's manager told The Yomiuri Shimbun that he has returned to Turkey. She declined to comment further.

Rampant cheating hurts China's research ambitions

LIUZHOU, China (AP) — When professors in China need to author research papers to get promoted, many turn to people like Lu Keqian.

Working on his laptop in a cramped spare bedroom, the former schoolteacher ghostwrites for professors, students, government offices — anyone willing to pay his fee, typically about 300 yuan ($45).

"My opinion is that writing papers for someone else is not wrong," he said. "There will always be a time when one needs help from others. Even our great leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping needed help writing."

Ghostwriting, plagiarizing or faking results is so rampant in Chinese academia that some experts worry it could hinder China's efforts to become a leader in science.

The communist government views science as critical to China's modernization, and the latest calls for government spending on science and technology to grow by 8 percent to 163 billion yuan ($24 billion) this year.

State-run media recently exulted over reports that China publishes more papers in international journals than any except the U.S. But not all the research stands up to scrutiny. In December, a British journal retracted 70 papers from a Chinese university, all by the same two lead scientists, saying the work had been fabricated.

"Academic fraud, misconduct and ethical violations are very common in China," said professor Rao Yi, dean of the life sciences school at Peking University in the capital. "It is a big problem."

Critics blame weak penalties and a system that bases faculty promotions and bonuses on number, rather than quality, of papers published.

Dan Ben-Canaan is familiar with plagiarism.

The Israeli professor has been teaching for nine years at Heilongjiang University in the northeastern city of Harbin. A colleague approached him in 2008 for a paper he wrote about the kidnapping and murder of a Jewish musician in Harbin in 1933 during the Japanese occupation.

"He had the audacity to present it as his own paper at a conference that I organized," Ben-Canaan said. "Without any shame!"

In a separate case, he gave material he had written to a researcher at the prestigious Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He said he was shocked to receive a book by the academic that was mostly a copy and translation of the material Ben-Canaan had provided — without any attribution.

The pressure to publish has created a ghostwriting boom. Nearly 1 billion yuan (more than $145 million) was spent on academic papers in China last year, up fivefold from 2007, a study by Wuhan University professor Shen Yang showed.

One company providing such a service is Lu's, in Liuzhou, a southern industrial city. His Lu Ke Academic Center boasts a network of 20 to 30 graduate students and professors whose specialties range from computer technology to military affairs.

Lu, a 58-year-old Communist Party member, is approached by clients through Internet chat programs. Most are college professors seeking promotions and students seeking help on theses. Once, 10 students from the same college class put in a collective request for him to write their papers, he said.

"Doing everything on your own, independently, should be possible in theory, but in reality it is quite difficult and one will always need some help," Lu said. "This is how I see it. I don't know if it is right."

Even in the business of selling research papers, there are cheats. Among the papers bought and sold in 2007, more than 70 percent were plagiarized, the Wuhan study found.

Early last year, Internet users found that the deputy principal of Anhui Agricultural University had committed plagiarism in as many as 20 papers. The university removed him from his post but allowed him to continue teaching.

In June, the principal of a traditional Chinese medicine university in the city of Guangzhou was accused of plagiarizing at least 40 percent of his doctoral thesis from another paper.

And in March, the state-run China Youth Daily reported a 1997 medical paper had been plagiarized repeatedly over the past decade. At least 25 people from 16 organizations copied from the work, and more doctors are expected to be named as the investigation by two students using plagiarism-detecting software continues, the report said.

Fang Shimin, an independent investigator of fraud, said he and his volunteers expose about a hundred cases every year, publicizing them on a Web site titled "New Threads."

"The most common ones are plagiarism and exaggerating academic achievement," Fang said.

The papers retracted by the British journal came from researchers at Jinggangshan University in southeastern China. The editors are checking other papers from the same institution, and say more retractions are expected. Calls and e-mails sent to Zhong Hua and Liu Tao, the two researchers named as lead authors of the papers, were unanswered. Other researchers contacted at the university too did not respond.

The journal, Acta Crystallographica Section E, publishes discoveries of new crystal structures, much of it from legitimate Chinese research.

"Chinese authors have submitted thousands of high quality structures to Acta E, which represent an important contribution to science," wrote Peter Strickland, managing editor of Journals of the International Union of Crystallography, which owns Acta E, in an e-mail. He said it was the first time fraudulent papers had been found in any of the journals.

Richard P. Suttmeier, an expert in Chinese science policy at the University of Oregon, said the problems can be traced to China's efforts to modernize its science system in the 1980s and early 1990s when research accountability and evaluation were still weak.

In trying to find ready measures of achievement, China emulated Western practices and began to focus on high-quality publications, but with mixed results, he said.

The problems could hurt the country's ambition of becoming a global leader in research, Suttmeier said.

"I suspect there will be less appetite for non-Chinese scientists to collaborate with Chinese colleagues who are operating in a culture of misconduct," he said.

Last month the Education Ministry released guidelines for forming a 35-member watchdog committee. Also, in a faxed reply to questions, it said it has asked universities to get tough.

Rao, the Peking University dean, remains skeptical.

Government ministries are happy to fund research but not to police it, he said. "The authorities don't want to be the bad guy."

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Associated Press researcher Xi Yue contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Lu Ke Academic Center: http://www.luke99.com

New Threads: http://www.xys.org/