OK, it's getting weird now. I thought this would be much less common in top 10s.

There's a simple path here: tell them plagiarized papers are not going to get published, or will be retracted in the future, and this will hinder their graduation & will create trouble for their advisor (+ advisor would lose face) if they insist on submitting such papers.

When your students (and everyone else) care only about the "pragmatic", give them "pragmatic" reasons! Chinese people generally do not like creating trouble/making others lose face, so that's a good path.

Convincing them that plagiarism is morally incorrect and not right would be harder, and students would likely not buy into that. But the pragmatic path gets the job done :-)


From the situation you described, I infer two things about your situation. Correct me if I am wrong:

  1. The university you're at is likely not top-tier. I would be surprised if even the researchers at Tsinghua or Jiaoda (Shanghai Jiaotong University) engage in academically dishonest conduct frequently. I suppose you're likely at a local (provincial) university.

  2. Your colleagues/students are mainly targeting domestic conferences/journals (and likely not the top ones). Otherwise they will surely know that academically dishonest practices will get their papers rejected.

If both are true, I'm afraid little could be done. You could try very hard to at least make your students not plagiarize, but this will probably have a very negative impact on future recruitment, and even your students are not going to 100% listen to you. The best option at hand is trying to move to another university (preferably in another country) if this bothers you (it would bother me for sure).


The ranty part: I decided to delete this, but just keep two key points.

  1. Plagiarism is not dealt with seriously enough and people let it happen. Awareness of what constitutes plagiarism is low, but for reasonably experienced researchers this should be obvious. So, as you see, the problem is not that people don't know it is plagiarism; they likely do know, but they have no reason to care.

  2. The quality of most domestic journals & conferences are questionable, so the problem is even more serious at this level (because not even the editors care).

Answer from xuq01 on Stack Exchange
🌐
NCBI
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pmc › articles › PMC7954232
A Primer on Plagiarism: Resources for Educators in China - PMC
In 2016, more than 470,000 scientific ... by Chinese researchers, bringing China to the top of the list of countries with the largest number of published articles (National Science Board, 2018). At the same time, commitment to scientific ethics in China has come into question, as China also leads the list of countries with the highest proportion of retractions (Ataie-Ashtiani, 2017). Among reasons for retractions, plagiarism is a particular ...
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Stack Exchange
academia.stackexchange.com › questions › 114546 › how-can-i-convince-graduate-students-in-china-to-not-copy-paste-from-the-interne
publications - How can I convince graduate students in China to not copy/paste from the Internet into their research papers? - Academia Stack Exchange

OK, it's getting weird now. I thought this would be much less common in top 10s.

There's a simple path here: tell them plagiarized papers are not going to get published, or will be retracted in the future, and this will hinder their graduation & will create trouble for their advisor (+ advisor would lose face) if they insist on submitting such papers.

When your students (and everyone else) care only about the "pragmatic", give them "pragmatic" reasons! Chinese people generally do not like creating trouble/making others lose face, so that's a good path.

Convincing them that plagiarism is morally incorrect and not right would be harder, and students would likely not buy into that. But the pragmatic path gets the job done :-)


From the situation you described, I infer two things about your situation. Correct me if I am wrong:

  1. The university you're at is likely not top-tier. I would be surprised if even the researchers at Tsinghua or Jiaoda (Shanghai Jiaotong University) engage in academically dishonest conduct frequently. I suppose you're likely at a local (provincial) university.

  2. Your colleagues/students are mainly targeting domestic conferences/journals (and likely not the top ones). Otherwise they will surely know that academically dishonest practices will get their papers rejected.

If both are true, I'm afraid little could be done. You could try very hard to at least make your students not plagiarize, but this will probably have a very negative impact on future recruitment, and even your students are not going to 100% listen to you. The best option at hand is trying to move to another university (preferably in another country) if this bothers you (it would bother me for sure).


The ranty part: I decided to delete this, but just keep two key points.

  1. Plagiarism is not dealt with seriously enough and people let it happen. Awareness of what constitutes plagiarism is low, but for reasonably experienced researchers this should be obvious. So, as you see, the problem is not that people don't know it is plagiarism; they likely do know, but they have no reason to care.

  2. The quality of most domestic journals & conferences are questionable, so the problem is even more serious at this level (because not even the editors care).

Answer from xuq01 on academia.stackexchange.com
🌐
ResearchGate
researchgate.net › publication › 266203302_Chinese_University_Students'_Perceptions_of_Plagiarism
(PDF) Chinese University Students’ Perceptions of Plagiarism
April 15, 2015 - PDF | This study examines Chinese undergraduates’ perceptions of plagiarism in English academic writing in relation to their disciplinary background... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
🌐
Quora
quora.com › Academic-Plagiarism-and-Cheating-Do-Chinese-international-students-frequently-lie-on-undergraduate-college-admission-and-financial-aid-applications-If-so-what-can-be-done-to-curtail-such-activity
Academic Plagiarism and Cheating: Do Chinese international students frequently lie on undergraduate college admission and financial aid applications? If so, what can be done to curtail such activity? - Quora
Answer (1 of 9): I ‘ll tell you my experience. I am an indian graduate student in an american university. My advisor is a chinese professor and i am the only indian student in a research group full of chinese students. There is a chinese girl in my lab whom i have seen cheating on exams twice ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/tefl › plagiarism in chinese universities...
r/TEFL on Reddit: Plagiarism in Chinese universities...

I get that Chinese education values reproduction over production, but what I don't understand is why students repeatedly plagiarize.

Say that again, slowly.

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Forbes
forbes.com › forbes homepage
China's Plagiarism Problem
July 11, 2012 - It poses a risk to innovation and further economic growth.
🌐
Quora
quora.com › Why-is-Chinas-copying-plagiarism-culture-so-prevalent
Why is China's copying/plagiarism culture so prevalent? - Quora
Answer (1 of 11): Plagiarism, defined as using other people’s words and ideas without giving reference, itself is not a bad thing. It turns to be a bad thing only when one claims someone else’s words and ideas as their own, which is dishonesty. The practice of citing without referencing ...
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Scmp
scmp.com › news › china › people & culture
How Chinese universities are tackling plagiarism - and is it working? | South China Morning Post
June 4, 2019 - Tertiary institutions are setting limits on the amount of material that students can duplicate in dissertations but some say there should be a zero-tolerance policy on plagiarism.
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Igi-global
igi-global.com › gateway › chapter › 170103
Academic Integrity: Exploring Issues of Plagiarism Facing Chinese Students in New Zealand Universities | IGI Global
Student plagiarism is a pervasive issue at all levels of study in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) around the world. Plagiarism is considered as a cultural phenomenon and students from certain cultures are often stereotyped as ‘persistent plagiarists'. This chapter reports the findings ...
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Study International
studyinternational.com › news › plagia-concept-academic-integrity-splits-world-half
Plagia-what? How the concept of academic integrity splits the world in half - Study International
July 28, 2017 - The cover of Joe Lurie’s book “Perception and Deception: A Mind-Opening Journey Across Cultures?” is of a cow. On the bovine’s nose, it is written “What am I? Divine? Dowry? Dinner?”. In one picture, Lurie, who was the Executive Director Emeritus of the University of California ...
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US-China Today
uschinatoday.org › features › 2011 › 03 › 28 › unraveling-plagiarism-in-china
Unraveling Plagiarism in China – US-China Today
In July 2010, Centenary College ... plagiarism among its students there. Following an investigation conducted by a law firm and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the school decided to withhold degrees from all 400 of its students enrolled in its Asia M.B.A. programs in Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei. School officials declined to discuss to the media the details of the cheating uncovered in the investigation or why they decided to withhold degrees for all 400 Chinese-speaking students ...
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#SixthTone
sixthtone.com › news › 1006685
Chinese Government to Randomly Check Student Theses for Plagiarism
New system should also force schools to assess the quality of their instruction, professor says.
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PubMed
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › 32877216
Chinese graduate students' perceptions of plagiarism: A mixed-methods study - PubMed
This paper reports on a mixed-methods study that utilized a convergent parallel design to examine Chinese graduate students' knowledge of and stance on plagiarism in English academic writing. A sample of 183 master's students from three broad disciplinary groupings at a major university in ...
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Turnitin
turnitin.com › blog › cultural-differences-in-plagiarism
Cultural Differences in Plagiarism
How students from diverse backgrounds bring different perspectives on plagiarism to the classroom
🌐
ResearchGate
researchgate.net › publication › 309718086_Academic_integrity_Exploring_issues_of_plagiarism_facing_Chinese_students_in_New_Zealand_universities
(PDF) Academic Integrity: Exploring Issues of Plagiarism Facing Chinese Students in New Zealand Universities
November 6, 2016 - PDF | Abstract Student plagiarism is a pervasive issue at all levels of study in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) around the world. Plagiarism is... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
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Ku
guides.lib.ku.edu › c.php
Plagiarism(抄袭 剽竊) - Chinese Students' Guide to Research and KU Libraries - Subject & Course Guides at University of Kansas
This guide is designed to assist Chinese students with doing research and using KU Libraries. This tab is about plagiarism and links to another resource page.
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L1research
l1research.org › article › view › 490
Education on plagiarism in Chinese-L1 textbooks on academic writing published in China | L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature
Teachers in Anglophone universities have often attributed Chinese ESL students’ plagiarism to “cultural difference”, the implication being that what is considered plagiarism in the English-speaking world may not be seen as plagiarism in China.
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NPR
npr.org › 2011 › 08 › 03 › 138937778 › plagiarism-plague-hinders-chinas-scientific-ambition
Plagiarism Hinders China's Scientific Ambition : NPR
August 3, 2011 - China is forecast to become the world's leading innovator this year, overtaking the U.S. and Japan in number of patent filings. But scientific fraud scandals bedevil the country's reputation as an innovator, and many say aspects of traditional Chinese culture may be partly to blame
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Aliesq
aliesq.com › articles › 2018 › 11 › 6 › academic-plagiarism-and-east-asian-students-chinese-pedagogic-traditions-conflict-with-usa-laws-amp-policies
Cultural Issues Related to Academic Plagiarism and Cheating Require a Nuanced Approach by School Administrators
January 31, 2021 - Students from all nations are guilty of cheating in school for one reason or another. Certainly there is no shortage of cheating by white students in US schools, and the same can be said of students of all ethnic backgrounds in any nation. According to the International Center for Academic Integrit