Rethinking the Scientific Integrity of Young College Teachers: A Study of the Retracted Publications from Journals

摘要

Scientific integrity emphasizes teachers' innovation, self-restraint and self-development. However, pushed by the "publish or perish" norm and challenging evaluation regulations, teachers and researchers need more publications. Due to the high pressure, some teachers would risk their reputation and integrity and be reduced to committing academic fraud or misconduct in their researches or published articles. The direct possible consequence would be retractions of some published articles by some journals. In this paper, focusing on the research question "How to Set the Bottom Line of Scientific Integrity for Young College Teachers?", an analysis of the retracted publications was conducted to evaluate the status quo of academic fraud. The principal methods applied in our research are literature analysis. According to the findings, reasons for retractions by journals are mainly misconduct accounting for more than 70% (including fraud, fabrication, plagiarism, faked peer review, duplicate publication, no permission from institutions or researchers), as well as error (honest/administrative error), etc. Rethinking the retractions would help to offer suggestions in improving the academic level of young teachers and setting up a bottom line of scientific research, which can promote the progress of science and technology, create a good academic environment, and then contribute to the construction of a healthy and scientific education system.