The National Natural Science Foundation of China, in an online announcement, has recently exposed 21 instances of research misconduct, citing offenses like trading experimental data and plagiarizing grant proposals.

Over half of the cases revolved around grant application plagiarism, the foundation said in the announcement.

It reprimanded 25 individuals, imposing penalties such as revoking applications and three-year suspension of the qualifications for project application. Essay topics implicated in the misconduct spanned studies on cervical and prostate cancers, articular cartilage aging, and rare earths.

Additionally, the foundation warned against unauthorized grant application sales, stressing the criticality of upholding research integrity.

According to the foundation, some ghostwriting firms have resorted to blackmail and extortion of buyers of grant applications to disclose misconduct. Researchers are urged to abstain from any form of grant application trading to maintain research ethics and credibility.