The leading national science authority has revealed plans to deal with the rising number of scientific misconduct cases.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has released two documents that set out ways to weed out misconduct, such as plagiarism, and encourage integrity among those in the scientific community.

"In recent years, scientific misconduct has shown a rising trend, and we need a complete regulation system to ensure ethical behavior among academic circles," CAS President Lu Yongxiang told a news conference in Beijing yesterday.

Last year, several senior scientists were caught out falsifying data and plagiarising.

In March and April last year, Liu Hui, assistant dean of the medical school of Beijing-based Tsinghua University; Yang Jie, dean of life science school of Shanghai-based Tongji University; and Chen Jin, dean of electronic engineering school of Shanghai Jiaotong University were fired for falsifying their resumes or fabricating their research.

With more than 30,000 scientists and nearly 100 research institutes, CAS is the peak research body in China.

It has established a scientific ethics committee within its institutes.

"We have had a science ethics committee for academics of the CAS, and this is the first one we have one for common scientists and graduate students in CAS," Lu said.

CAS also published what is called the "Declaration on Scientific Concepts".

It states like a code of ethics that scientists should always keep their integrity, and accountability purposes, open up their research to colleagues.

Last November, the Ministry of Science and Technology pledged a crackdown on cases of scientific misconduct.

Earlier last year, the Ministry of Education also made similar attempts by establishing a research ethics committee.

(China Daily 02/27/2007 page3)