In 2008, when her scientific publication, the Journal of Zhejiang University-Science, became the first in China to use CrossCheck text analysis software to spot plagiarism, Zhang was pleased to be a trailblazer. But when the first set of results came in, she was upset and horrified.

“In almost two years, we find about 31 percent of papers with unreasonable copy[ing] and plagiarism,” she says, shaking her head. “This is true.”

For computer science and life science papers, that figure went up to almost 40 percent. When Zhang published these findings, she was criticized for bringing shame on Chinese scientists, even though she had emphasized that many of the papers were from overseas. —NPR.org » Plagiarism Plague Hinders Chinas Scientific Ambition.