An Exploration of Student-Level Suggestions for Addressing Graduate Student Academic Misconduct ()
1. Scientific Ethics and Academic Standards
Every industry has its own unique professional ethics, and scientific ethics refers to the professional ethics standards that scientific researchers should abide by. Only by following scientific ethics can scientific researchers compete on an equal footing, fully stimulate the vitality of innovation, and give talented scientists a sense of academic gain. Because some of the research that scientists are engaged in is of great significance to the whole industry and even the whole society, scientific ethics is indirectly related to the stability and harmony of the future society. In terms of public significance, scientific morality also plays a driving role in improving social morality. The so-called academic norms refer to the basic norms for academic activities formed within the academic community, or the basic norms for academic activities formulated according to the law of academic development. It involves the whole process of academic research and all aspects of academic activities, including academic research norms, academic evaluation norms, academic criticism norms and academic management norms; Some scholars have made a horizontal summary of academic norms, which include its two meanings: one is the specific rules in academic research, such as the rules of rational use of documents, the rules of citation marking, the logical rules of argument elaboration, etc., and the other is the high-level norms, such as academic system norms and style of study norms. Mainly manifested in the following three levels: content level norms, value level norms, technical operation level norms. Scientific ethics and academic norms are two sides of an organic whole and the unity of opposites.
2. Research Method
This paper mainly adopts keyword search, literature citation and literature analysis methods: identify the keywords that need to be studied, search through relevant search engines, obtain relevant literature, and then analyze and cite to understand the research methods and research results in this field.
3. Research Context
With greater scrutiny of academic misconduct and increased disciplinary actions, this issue is a pressing concern for educators and students alike. A number of scholars in China have studied the issue of academic misconduct.
For example, Guo Yuzhen conducted a survey on 1176 graduate students and found that only 24.40% of them are always aware of academic norms in their study and research, and 56.60% of them will only chat privately or not report academic misconduct. Only 32.64% of the graduate students had listened to relevant lectures or academic reports, 10.58% had attended relevant classes, and more than half of the remaining graduate students knew or even had never known about the regulations related to academic ethics and norms. 84.86% of the graduate students agreed with the educational significance related to academic ethics and norms. The results of Guo Yuzhen’s study show that there are different degrees of differences in graduate students’ knowledge and attitudes toward academic misconduct. For example, only 24.40% of the graduate students believe that they are “always aware of academic norms” in their daily study and research, and 56.60% of the graduate students will only chat privately or pretend not to know when they find or report academic misconduct. This shows that most of the students cannot make positive and correct responses to academic misconduct, the students’ awareness of academic ethics and responsibility still needs to be strengthened, and the awareness of academic norms of postgraduates needs to be further strengthened. On the other hand, the survey results show that only 32.64% of the graduate students “have listened to relevant lectures or academic reports” and 10.58% “have listened to relevant courses”. The remaining more than half of the graduate students know or have never known the relevant regulations of academic ethics and academic norms. Thus, it seems that colleges and universities need to strengthen the education of academic ethics and academic norms for graduate students. In addition, the survey results show that 84.86% of the graduate students agree with the significance of the education of academic ethics and academic norms, which indicates that the students’ demand for the education of academic ethics and academic norms is quite strong [1]. In general, although the current education on academic ethics and academic norms for graduate students in colleges and universities has been carried out, it needs to be strengthened in both depth and breadth.
At the social level, some news media have also pointed out the relevant problems: On February 10th, 2004, People’s Daily published an article entitled “Seven deadly sins should not pollute science”, which listed seven kinds of misconduct: 1) Plagiarism plagiarizes the achievements of others. 2) Forge and tamper with experimental data. 3) arbitrarily encroach on other people’s scientific research achievements. 4) Repeated publication of papers. 5) The quality of academic papers is reduced and the education is irresponsible. 6) Highlight personal interests in academic review and project declaration. 7) Excessive pursuit of fame and fortune encourages the wind of floating noise. In addressing scientific misconduct, the news media playing an important monitoring role that can assist the public in understanding the seriousness of academic misconduct and promote integrity and fairness in the academic community. At the same time, the news media can also promote the reform and development of academia and enhance the reputation and credibility of academia by reporting and exposing academic misconduct.
At the national level, the State has enacted relevant laws and regulations: In 2012, Decree No.34 of the Ministry of Education of People’s Republic of China (PRC) officially issued the Measures for Handling False Dissertations; In 2014, the Office of the State Council Education Supervision Committee carried out a special inspection on the degree-granting units to deal with the falsification of dissertations. It shows that the state attaches great importance to the phenomenon of dissertation forgery, and also shows the impetuous mentality of the academic community and the lack of rigorous academic style. The state has formulated relevant laws and regulations, mobilized the strength of all sectors of society to combat this academic misconduct, and maintained the authenticity and fairness of academics. It guides students to cultivate the academic spirit of truth-seeking, avoids quick success, and promotes academic progress.
4. The Main Behaviors of Academic Misconduct and Their Dangers
Academic misconduct refers to the behavior of scientific researchers who violate recognized scientific rules. Scholars or institutions in various countries have roughly the same definition of its scope. The National Science Foundation of the United States and federal government agencies define academic misconduct as “fabrication, tampering and plagiarism”. In 2009, China’s Ministry of Education’s Notice on Seriously Handling Academic Misconduct in Colleges and Universities defined six kinds of academic misconduct: 1) Plagiarism, plagiarism and misappropriation of other people’s academic achievements; 2) Tampering with others’ academic achievements; 3) Forge or tamper with data and documents and fabricate facts; 4) Forge notes; 5) Did not participate in the creation, and signed the academic achievements of others; 6) Improper use of others’ signatures without others’ permission. Chang Yaping and others define academic misconduct as an act that violates academic ethics and general social ethics in order to defraud the scientific community and social recognition in the process of scientific research and evaluation, and divide academic misconduct into several types, such as seeking fame and reputation, pursuing quantity, encroaching on others’ achievements, fictional data, false statements, obstructing others’ research, conspiring to cheat, and judging and caring [2]. Ma Yuchao and Liu Ruizhi divide academic misconduct into two categories: achievement content misconduct and social relationship misconduct. The former includes plagiarism or tampering with others’ achievements, falsifying data, falsifying data, fabricating facts and falsifying notes, while the latter includes improper signature and improper evaluation [3].
The harm of scientific misconduct is mainly manifested in the following aspects: First, it damages the reputation of China scholars. Under the background of the globalization of science and technology, academic misconduct will not only have an impact on China, but its international influence is obviously beyond the scope of individuals. In some academic seminars and other international occasions, individual scholars in China represent the whole country. If an individual misbehaves, it will have a negative impact on the reputation of the entire China scholar group. Second, it affects the public’s trust in scholars. In today’s academic prosperity and development, plagiarism and plagiarism are common. Coupled with the exposure of social media, it has seriously affected the society’s trust in scholars. The credibility of scholars’ qualifications has seriously declined, which even leads to people’s doubts and prejudices about the system of obtaining scholars’ qualifications, questioning social fairness and justice and endangering social order. Third, it affects the internal order of scholars. Although there are some overlaps in the research among scholars, they are constantly innovating on the basis of their predecessors. Scholars hold their own opinions and opinions and communicate with each other on an equal footing. The appearance of academic misconduct is likely to lead to differences of opinion among scholars and endanger the internal order of scholars.
For graduate students, academic misconduct tends to encourage their anxiety, which makes more students think that academic research can cut corners and take the form, which makes the academic development of graduate students fall into a bottleneck, and the academic ability to write papers is insufficient, and they do not understand the format requirements and publication requirements, which gives lawless elements an opportunity. Academic misconduct tends to lower the overall quality of graduate students and has a serious adverse effect on their reputation, which makes more people think that graduate students are just piled up with money and have no gold content. In a word, academic misconduct is undoubtedly harmful to graduate students.
5. Exploration of Student-Level Solution Suggestions
The pinnacle of higher learning, graduate students represent the nation’s realization of science and technology. The primary driver of innovation has a significant impact on the expansion and development of higher education, as well as on academic influence and status [4]. Judging from the causes, firstly, students should learn scientific knowledge independently and pay attention to improving their moral education level because of their incomplete education. Independent study of academic spirit and attitude. Take the initiative to accept political and ideological education, moral quality education, study civic morality and professional ethics, and accept the education of moral bottom line. Second, from the perspective of institutional system, the institutional norms related to scientific research are not perfect. Students should consciously accept criticism and supervision from academia and society, and at the same time consciously abide by academic norms and standards. Third, from the cultural perspective, students lack sense of innovation, and tend to stay in formalism, keep academic reservations at a low level, and resort to deceit. Students should cultivate their own subjective consciousness of innovation, improve their own knowledge reserves, expand their thinking angles and think in multiple directions.
From the performance point of view, in view of the performance of the six kinds of academic misconduct proposed in the People’s Daily’s “Seven Deaths”, articles 1 to 4 mainly require students to improve their academic level, actively learn several main behaviors to avoid academic misconduct, and enhance their innovative ability. Article 5 “The quality of academic papers is reduced and the education is irresponsible” requires students to consciously ensure the quality and quantity of their papers and accept supervision. Article 6 and Article 7 require students to improve their ideological and moral cultivation, be indifferent to fame and fortune, pay attention to their own improvement, have a collective spirit in academic evaluation and project declaration, and resolutely say no in the face of interest temptation.
From the behavioral point of view, in view of the six kinds of academic misconduct defined in the Notice on Seriously Handling Academic Misconduct in Colleges and Universities issued by the Ministry of Education in 2009. Students need to consolidate the basic ability of academic creation and learn the publishing standards of papers. The conclusion of the paper should come from the real and reliable data. Students should study and practice the questionnaire survey. First, they should skillfully use the questionnaire survey software, learn some basic operations of distributing questionnaires, analyze the dimensions of the questionnaire survey, and learn to summarize the questionnaire results. Furthermore, it is necessary to skillfully display references and not directly copy and paste documents that have not been read, which requires students to be familiar with the requirements of paper format and have the ability to find documents. Finally, we should be familiar with the publishing requirements of papers, learn to quote others’ opinions correctly, and be familiar with the citation format and the publishing standards. Improper use of others’ signatures is strictly prohibited.
6. Summary
A healthy academic atmosphere, a scientific academic norms system, and good academic ethics are the basic prerequisites and important guarantee for the development and prosperity of graduate education. Strengthening the education of graduate students’ scientific ethics and academic norms is conducive to improving the overall level of national academic circles and forming a good atmosphere in academic circles. It is also conducive to the national academic prosperity and development, to the world, and to shine on the international stage. Academic norms require the combination of internal self-discipline mechanisms and external restriction mechanisms [5]. Postgraduates should start from themselves, pay attention to their ideological and moral cultivation and academic standard education. Learn the knowledge related to academic norms, understand the relevant standards for publishing papers, enhance the ability of innovative thinking, avoid academic misconduct from appearing on yourself, set an example, and contribute to the prosperity and development of the academic community.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest.