Nature 467 , 153 (09 September 2010) DOI:doi:10.1038/467153dDate published:,doi:10.1038/467153d
Page:Published online
08 September 2010
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 (Nature466, 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.
Plagiarism and citing others' work are different things. I believe scholars in ancient China cite rather than plagiarize (see the Analects of Confucius, for example). Plagiarism often has selfish connotations – such as monetary or other rewards, whereas citing others' work gives regards to the original author(s) and can be considered an act of generosity or respect. Plagiarism is a product of the reward-centered modern world.
I was surprised to the title, and eager to know the details. However, I thought the author mislead the readers definitely according to the text. I don't think it is acceptable that the author used Chinese journal instead of Journal of Zhejiang University?Science.
From their website (http://www.zju.edu.cn/jzus/), Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE(A/B/C) are international peer-reviewed journals. They have a world-wide authorship. It is 'Chinese journal' (more accurately, 'a' Chinese journal) in the title, not necessarily meaning 31% of submissions of 'Chinese authors'. From this correspondence, we can see that some Chinese editors have realized this problem and made their efforts to struggle with misconduct.pdf原文