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Thisis a famous saying in American politics. Historical incidents starting with the“Nixon Watergate” in 1973  to the mostrecent “Congressman Wiener” incident in 2011 amply illustrate the folly and heavypenalties of lying about and attempts to cover up indiscretions and misdeed inpolitics.

Oneof the problems of current Chinese scholarly misconduct seems to be also ofChinese family culture origin. When a misdeed by a scholar is uncovered, thefirst reaction of the institution to which the accused scholar belongs is to considerthis as bringing shame to the organization. Thus, in China in the spirit of notwashing your family dirty laundry in public, the institution tends to protectthe individual by attempting to white wash or cover up the misconduct. Because ofthis relative lack of punishment for misconduct, further incentive, beyondfinancial ones, is provided to induce mis-behavior. In contrast, in the West,misconduct of a scholar is a personal affair. The duty of the organization isto investigate the event and if true dismiss or heavily punish the scholar.There is no stigma attached to the institution. Cover up is not in the academicculture.

Thus,it is a welcomed sign to read the new blog http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=75099&do=blog&id=464927&page=2about “燕山大学解聘付炜教授职务”.

 It appears that lessons aregradually being learned.