If proposed new regulations are approved, researchers who have papers ghostwritten would need to return their government funding, because the draft would classify the practice as misconduct, Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) said on Monday last week.
The ministry last month proposed draft amendments to its Guidelines for Handling and Investigating Research Misconduct (學術倫理案件處理及審議要點), which governs researchers’ applications to the ministry for project funding or academic awards.
Having a paper ghostwritten is a breach of research ethics and investigations would be able to go back 10 years, the draft says.
Legislators across parties continue to be concerned over the prevalence of university students in Taiwan using thesis ghostwriters.
At a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee last year, Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸), then of the New Power Party, questioned the practice, saying that it costs about NT$120,000 to hire a ghostwriter and that students can require that the thesis be written by a professor or someone with a master’s degree.
Hung asked how the ministry would tackle the problem of research funded by the government being written by ghostwriters.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) at the time urged the ministry to implement penalties for project leaders who hire ghostwriters.
From January to June, 11 researchers were punished for misconduct, mostly for plagiarism, fabrications and falsifications, the ministry said.
Among them, eight researchers were banned from applying for ministry funding for one to five years, three were given a warning and one needed to return NT$600,000 in funding, it added.
Researchers with a record of misconduct would first be investigated by their institutions, which are responsible for supervising them, the ministry said.
The ministry said that following an investigation, it would convene a task force of at least three members from the researcher’s field, or experts in related fields, to review the institution’s report, adding that instances of grave misconduct would be further examined by its ethics review committee.
A retroactive investigation of misconduct should be conducted within 10 years, but this does not apply in cases with ongoing funding or those that could jeopardize public interests or safety, it added.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
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