ERIC Number: EJ1456335
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jan
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1747-0161
EISSN: EISSN-2047-6094
Research Misconduct in China: Towards an Institutional Analysis
Xinqu Zhang; Peng Wang
Research Ethics, v21 n1 p76-96 2025
Unethical research practices are prevalent in China, but little research has focused on the causes of these practices. Drawing on the criminology literature on organisational deviance, as well as the concept of "cengceng jiama," which illustrates the increase of pressure in the process of policy implementation within a top-down bureaucratic hierarchy, this article develops an institutional analysis of research misconduct in Chinese universities. It examines both universities and the policy environment of Chinese universities as contexts for research misconduct. Specifically, this article focuses on China's Double First-Class University Initiative and its impact on elite universities that respond to the policy by generating new incentive structures to promote research quality and productivity as well as granting faculties and departments greater flexibility in terms of setting high promotion criteria concerning research productivity. This generates enormous institutional tensions and strains, encouraging and sometimes even compelling individual researchers who wish to survive to decouple their daily research activities from ethical research norms. This article is written based on empirical data collected from three elite universities as well as a review of policy documents, universities' internal documents, and news articles.
Descriptors: Research Problems, Ethics, Productivity, Universities, Policy Analysis, Research Administration, Researchers, College Faculty, Foreign Countries, Incentives, Reputation, Incidence, Cheating, Departments, Faculty Promotion, Evaluation Criteria, News Reporting
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A