Results of the probe involving former minister of education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧), who was linked to an academic paper peer-review scandal, were released by the Ministry of Science and Technology on Saturday.
The Ministry of Education announced that Chiang’s right to submit papers and apply for grants are to be suspended for one year.
Chiang was linked to five papers in which he was listed as a coauthor, along with former National Pingtung University of Education professor Chen Chen-yuan (陳震遠). The main author of the papers was Chen’s twin brother, Chen Chen-wu (陳震武), a professor at National Kaohsiung Marine University.
The publisher of Journal of Vibration and Control in July last year withdrew 60 papers submitted by Chen Chen-yuan, accusing him of creating false accounts to subvert the peer review process.
Chiang later that same month said he resigned as minister aiming to to uphold his own reputation and avoid any unnecessary disruption of the ministry’s operations.
The education ministry on Saturday added that Chen Chen-wu’s rights would be suspended for a decade and he would have to repay government grants that he had received.
Ministry spokesperson Lin Yi-ping (林一平) said that being suspended for a decade from applying for grants was a “severe punishment” that might literally “end their career,” adding however that those suspended could still seek alternative grants from other divisions and departments, which had separate procedures for acceptance and refusal.
Chen Chen-wu apologized for the controversy, adding that he would fully cooperate with the education and science and technology ministries in any investigations.
Meanwhile, Chiang issued a statement claiming ignorance of the Chen brothers using fake accounts to subvert the review process, adding that he had compiled all relevant data and sent it to the UK-based Sage Publications, and that “the company had, after reviewing the data, confirmed he was not a part of the incident.”
Chiang expressed regret that he was still being suspended for a year on the grounds of not having done his best when advising his former student Chen Chen-wu.
The Ministry of Science and Technology called on the National Kaohsiung Marine University and the National Central University to tender reports on how it would seek to improve procedures for approving theses.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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