China's Scientific & Academic Integrity Watch Blog

While I agree plagiarism is a serious problem in Chinese academia, I think Prof Stearns misses the mark. He sees the problem yet he clearly does not understand the root cause of the problem. Frankly, he doesn't seem to understand the Chinese at all!

Stearns' letter would have been much more useful and credible if he hadn't jumped into the conclusion that "China seems to have lost its ways" half way into the letter. Maybe in some respects China has lost its ways, but perhaps Prof Stearns should have looked into the history of Chinese education, why Chinese students tend to imitate rather than create, whether the western scientific process is shared by other cultures, etc. first before he jumps many many steps ahead and generalizes the moral path of an entire nation.

On another point, Prof Stearns needs to get down from his academic/moral high horse -- he sounds awfully arrogant and condescending. Bad approach to get his point across.

Kudos to the professor. He has every right to be on an academic/moral high horse, why shouldn't he be arrogant and condescending? He's right, isn't he? Beida, Tsinghua, Fudan, could really do themselves a favor and kick out every single professor and student that stoops to that level. It's disgusting behavior, and will do nothing good for China.

One point raised by the professor as understandably irritating him is the unauthorized translation and/or reproduction of copyrighted textbooks sold locally in China without royalties to the original authors. While his concerns on grounds of intellectual property integrity and financial remuneration are legitimate, the claims by developing countries that their institutions and students can hardly afford Western high prices also appears valid. Query whether there are creative ways to avoid the infringement and denial of financial credit, while accomodating the developing countries' needs. For example, instituting special income tax credits for authors/publishers by the Western nations' tax bureaus, to be offset by trade credits in like amounts by the consuming countries? Can anyone enlighten me on whether such, or similar, arrangements exist?