How to draw the conclusion of the thesis investigation?
Experts explain your doubts
◎Reporter of Science and Technology Daily
On January 21, the joint working mechanism of the Joint Conference on Scientific Research Integrity Construction issued the "Notice on the Investigation and Handling of Suspected Fraudulent Papers."
In response to related issues of public concern, on February 1, a reporter from the Science and Technology Daily interviewed Academician Badenian, the deputy head of the joint working mechanism review expert group of the Joint Conference on Scientific Research Integrity Construction.
At the same time, the reporter also interviewed an expert who did not participate in the investigation and talked about his views on related issues from a third-party perspective.
What is the task of the review panel
The reporter of Science and Technology Daily learned that under the framework of the joint conference on scientific research integrity construction composed of 21 member units, the six departments of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, the Health Commission, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Engineering, and the Natural Science Foundation of China jointly established a joint working mechanism to organize this Joint investigation.
The surveyed papers all belong to the fields of life sciences and medicine. In order to ensure the objective, accurate, and professional academic judgments, the joint working mechanism established a high-level review expert group with the participation of 9 academicians.
Badenian, a famous immunologist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is one of them.
"The joint working mechanism is led by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and is composed of the Ministry of Education, the Health Commission, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Engineering, the Natural Science Foundation of China and other relevant departments. I think it is appropriate to jointly investigate this matter." Badenian admitted, "These 9 The famous academicians come from the most famous research institutions, universities and medical institutions in the field of biomedicine in China. They are willing to accept national tasks and are difficult to find. One of the most important tasks assigned to us by the joint working mechanism is to come up with a Deliberate and realistic conclusion."
How to draw the conclusion that no false thesis is found
The investigation stated that the relevant papers "have not found any fraud."
The public is very concerned, how did this conclusion come about?
"In the specific review work, we obey the facts." Bud Nian said, "If some facts and evidence provided by relevant units and departments are not sufficient, they are required to supplement and explain within a time limit. For some issues that require further verification, We conducted on-site investigations and spent a lot of time. We went to the Shanghai Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhejiang University, Naval Military Medical University, Wuhan University, etc. to check the original records, and listened to the statements and defenses of the relevant parties in person."
"After grasping the relevant facts and verification materials, the review expert group held a closed meeting after several rounds of research and judgment, conducted professional discussions, and reached a conclusion. Only 9 experts from the expert group participated in the closed meeting." Badenian said. , The review expert group makes independent judgments based on facts.
This conclusion was unanimously discussed by the expert group, and it was a conclusion drawn by professional judgment. This is all based on facts. The survey materials have more than 5,000 pages.
The entire review process is rigorous and can stand the test.
The expert group is responsible for making academic judgments, and specific handling is not the task of the expert group.
He Minghong, chairman of the Chinese Society of Dialectics of Nature, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that it is sometimes very difficult to determine whether a paper is fraudulent. The main problem is that it is difficult to obtain sufficient facts and evidence, and scientific exploration is uncertain.
"During the investigation process, we should not presume a position, avoid preconceived ideas and one-sided analysis. It is necessary to collect evidence from multiple aspects, conduct in-depth objective analysis of doubtful issues, determine facts based on sufficient evidence and directly related logic, and distinguish responsibilities." He Minghong said In the process of analysis, inference, and determination, multiple links must be connected to each other, not only to prevent the omission of important evidence, but also to prevent misjudgments.
What is the difference between "Picture Misuse" and thesis fraud
The investigation stated that the relevant papers "have not been found to be falsified", but there is "misuse of pictures". How should this be understood?
"This is the result of the expert group's discussion and repeated scrutiny. Whether the questioned picture is misused or faked needs to be clearly defined. Misuse and fake are two different concepts." Badenian pointed out.
Badenian said that some papers have been questioned about multiple uses of a picture, but after zooming in on the pictures, it is found that these pictures are obviously different, not the same picture, and the doubt is not valid.
In some papers, the repeated use of the pictures questioned is the control group pictures, not the experimental group pictures, but there are different opinions on whether the control group pictures can be reused.
“There are still some problems with the pictures of the papers, but the problem is whether it is fake or misplaced. This is what we spend the most time on.” Bardenian said, “For example, on a large picture composed of 9 small pictures, one of the small pictures Misplaced, but the small picture that was misplaced can be found in the experimental record book, and it is not a fake drawing. We reviewed the pictures of the paper one by one on the spot to understand the situation and reasons of the misuse of the picture, and found that the misused picture is in the paper It was not discovered in time during the formation process, during the editorial review process, and after the paper was published. After being questioned this time, it was found that there was a wrong use of pictures, but this misuse did not affect the publication of the paper at the time, nor did it affect the research. Conclusion." Badenian pointed out.
In He Minghong's view, in the research that produces a large amount of data and pictures, there may be "misuse".
Academic issues are professional and rely on peer experts to make judgments based on evidence from an academic perspective, including verification and judgment on the authenticity and validity of evidence.
"For example, do you have the original data, whether the core elements in the paper, such as data, experimental conditions, etc., correspond to the original records, and whether the paper’s data is in the original state or after secondary processing, whether these processing or changes are reasonable or not? Reasonable, or is it a tampering with the data.” He Minghong emphasized that this depends on evidence and expert academic judgment, the relevance of the original experimental record and the paper, and the impact on the conclusion of the paper and the value of the paper. Whether novelty and conclusions are highly relevant or indispensable, or complementary or even irrelevant.
"If the conditions and data are artificially modified to obtain the desired results, it is a serious fraud. If multiple elements in the image are not logically similar to each other, it is necessary to check whether the author has the original picture and whether it has been modified. If the picture is The modification of the ‘s’ is through flipping, splicing, smearing, partial deletion or addition of certain elements. After artificial image manipulation (PS), it is necessary to further determine whether it is fraudulent.” He Minghong further pointed out that if there are a large number of misuses, although it cannot be characterized as fraud , But it is also a kind of not rigorous or scientific research behavior.
The reporter learned that this is clearly stipulated in the "Rules for the Investigation and Handling of Scientific Research Integrity Cases (Trial)", which is the reason for the corresponding handling this time.