Chinese journal finds 31% of submissions plagiarized

Yuehong Zhang
Nature 467 , Page: 153  Date published: (09 September 2010)
doi:10.1038/467153d

Since October 2008, we have detected unoriginal material in a staggering 31% of papers submitted to the Journal of Zhejiang University–Science (692 of 2,233 submissions). The publication, designated as a key academic journal by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, was the first in China to sign up for CrossRef's plagiarism-screening service CrossCheck (Nature 466, 167; 2010).

We are therefore campaigning for authors, researchers and editors to be on the alert for plagiarism and to work against cultural misunderstandings. In ancient China, for example, students were typically encouraged to copy the words of their masters.

To this end, we have given lectures and written three papers (including Y. H. Zhang Learn. Publ. 23, 9–14; 2010) that have been widely publicized in China's media (see http://go.nature.com/dPey7X; in Chinese) and reported in CrossRef's quarterly online news magazine (see http://go.nature.com/icUwvh). Our website displays the CrossCheck logo to remind authors of their responsibilities.

Other Chinese journals are also policing plagiarism, using software launched in 2008 by China's Academic Journals Electronic Publishing House and Tongfang Knowledge Network Technology in Beijing.