Two Chinese academics have lost their jobs after an international journal, Acta Crystallographica, revealed a series of scientific frauds involving 70 papers published in the journal, mostly during 2007.

The authors are Doctor Zhong Hua and Professor Liu Tao, both from Jinggangshan University in Jiangxi province.

The university on Tuesday fired the two authors and asked Zhong to return 32,000 yuan ($4,700) in incentives awarded by the university, 10 days after the journal published a notice to delete their papers.

"At least 70 (papers were) demonstrated to be falsified and meanwhile acknowledged by the authors as such. Our work is ongoing and it is likely that this figure will rise further," said a Dec 19 editorial published in the journal.

The fraud was discovered during routine testing using checking programs.

Investigation of these cases sparked a search of papers by the authors involved.

"The co-authors on these papers included other workers from Jinggangshan University together with authors from different institutions in China. Both these correspondence authors and all co-authors have signed," said the journal.

Jinggangshan University yesterday refused to reveal the names of the other co-authors.

"I don't know whether they will be punished," a female teacher of the academic administration of Jinggangshan University, who refused to be named, told China Daily yesterday.

"I am shocked by this news, as it is unbelievable to publish 70 papers in only two years," Wang Mu, director of the National Pilot Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures in Nanjing University, was quoted in People Daily's yesterday.

"It has been a challenge for a scientist to publish three to five papers in one year," he said.

Ma Xiao, a 26-year-old master's degree holder who graduated from the advanced materials science department of Technical University of Munich, said yesterday the pressure of publishing papers had misled many Chinese academics.

Huang Yong, the vice-chief of the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said 70 fraudulent papers reflect badly on other serious scientific work.

"It causes a bad influence. Such a scientific journal is like a dictionary and every paper is a new word in this dictionary. Other scientists might reference it in their further research," he was quoted by People Daily's yesterday.

Universities and colleges are ranked based on the number of papers its staff write and by their references in influential journals, with many still opting to shelter those who break the rules to protect their resources in the hope of future accomplishments and funds, an inside source told China Daily earlier.

（www.eduwo.com, Anna）