Written by Fang, 2021 Cohort
What is plagiarism? To be honest, this is a hard question for me. I’ve heard this saying since I was a kid, “All articles are created by copying”. When I am struggling with my Journal Entries, I usually open Google Chrome and search for articles for inspiration. Does it constitute plagiarism as long as other people’s ideas appear in my article without their permission? What is the difference between the unauthorized use of other people’s ideas or works on blogs and papers? Does the definition of plagiarism vary in different eras or among different countries? The plagiarism scandal of Dr. Zhang Wenhong made me have a better understanding of plagiarism in Chinese academia.
As a doctor and an epidemiologist, Dr. Zhang Wenhong’s remarks on COVID often arouse great public responses. In August 2021, someone posted on Weibo claiming that Dr. Zhang Wenhong’s doctoral dissertation was plagiarized. Zhang wrote his doctoral dissertation in 2000. The literature review part of his essay copied about 3,000 words from the body of another professor’s dissertation published in 1998. According to the definition from SFU (Simon Fraser University), plagiarism means “the unacknowledged use of other people’s ideas or work”1. Obviously, Zhang didn’t mention the author and copied his writings, which should constitute plagiarism in SFU.
To many people’s surprise, the Academic Regulations Committee of Fudan University believes that Zhang’s doctoral dissertation met the requirements of the doctoral dissertation at that time. The review part had irregular writing, which did not affect the scientific research results and academic level of his essay, and did not constitute academic misconduct. Many people argue that the review part mainly introduced the background and meaning of his research, and is not the most valuable part of the whole paper. Besides, 22 years ago in China, papers were hard to find on the Internet, so it was difficult to check for plagiarism. The national requirements for the quality of papers are not as strict as they are today. Plagiarism was somehow a common phenomenon and even Zhang was not exempt.
Personally, I believe that there is indeed plagiarism in Dr. Zhan’s paper. Had he been able to cite correctly or paraphrase in his paper at that time, he wouldn’t have caused so much trouble. The perception of plagiarism varies in different countries or universities, as well as different platforms. We need to try our best to avoid plagiarism so as to encourage originality and respect academic ethics.
- https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/academic-integrity/plagiarism#what-is-plagiarism