Row over plagiarism
In early June a letter was sent to China Youth Daily, alleging that Xu Zhiwei, president of the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, plagiarised his dissertation when studying for his doctorate.
The letter was sent by Lai Wen, doctoral tutor and professor of ancient medical literature, and Wu Lili, master tutor and associate professor of Chinese medicine.
Copies of Professor Xu's dissertation, written in 2005, along with the dissertation of his doctoral fellow Ao Haiqing, written in 2004, were enclosed with the letter. It alleged that Professor Xu had copied a great number of passages, data and analysis from Professor Ao. Up to 40 per cent of Professor Xu's paper, the letter alleged, is similar to Professor Ao's.
Professor Lai pointed out that although the two dissertations had some differences in format, the titles were almost identical. She said: 'Professor Xu's Chinese abstract, English abstract, theory study, experiment study and research prospect are all similar to Professor Ao's. Professor Xu's thesis is about 51,000 words, of which 22,300 words are the same as Professor Ao's. Even the use of punctuation and printing errors in Professor Xu's dissertation is the same as in Professor Ao's.'
Professor Xu responded that the allegations were false and he was innocent. He affirmed his work was original and the letter did not describe the entire picture.
'The core of my experiment and my innovative ideas were ignored,' he said.
Copies of the theses were also sent to Ge Jianxiong, a professor at Shanghai's Fudan University and a member of the Ministry of Education. He said the plagiarism was so obvious even a middle school student could see it and Professor Xu should clarify if he maintained that the accusations were false.
