Scientists awarded nation's top science prize

• Source: Global Times
• [02:58 January 12 2010]
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China's system of linking the number of essays written with promotions has been widely criticized and has been regarded as a catalyst for widespread academic cheating.

Hiring people to write their theses has been popular among many college students or working people seeking degrees or promotions. The essay market value is estimated to have expanded five times to 1 billion yuan in the past three years, according to Shen Yang, a professor of information science at Wuhan University, the Wuhan Evening News reported last week.

A recent example of scientific fraud involved two Chinese academics, Dr. Zhong Hua and Professor Liu Tao, both from Jinggangshan University in Jiangxi Province. They were humiliated after an international journal, Acta Crystallographica, revealed fraud involving their 70 papers published in the journal, mostly during 2007.

The university fired the two authors and asked Zhong to give back 32,000 yuan in incentives awarded by the university.

Song Shengxia and Yin Hang contributed to this story