Chinese medicine expert refutes
paying to get
published in Science magazine
A Chinese medicine expert has denied
paying money to have his article published in America's Science Magazine,
reports the Beijing Youth Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Youth
League committee in Beijing.
The article in question, titled
"Zheng: A systems biology approach to diagnosis and treatments," was
penned by Beijing University of Chinese Medicine president Xu Anlong and
published in a special issue of Science Magazine on Dec. 19.
While some said the article
reflected the international science community's approval of Chinese medicine,
skeptics claim the article is more like a paid advertisement to promote Chinese
medicine and is neither a proper professional nor academic paper.
The reason is because the special
issue, the first of a three-part series about the integration of traditional
medicines into modern medical practice, is co-sponsored by the Beijing
University of Chinese Medicine and Hong Kong Baptist University.
The issue itself also makes it clear
that it is a "Custom Publishing Office Sponsored Supplement," with a
disclaimer that none of the content is peer-reviewed or assessed by the
editorial staff of Science Magazine.
Xu has refuted the claims of him
effectively paying for his article to be published, telling the Beijing Youth
Daily that his writings had nothing to do with the university's sponsorship
deal.
He confirmed that the university did
indeed receive a sponsorship invite from the magazine, and that as a top
authority on Chinese medicine, the university accepted the invite and paid an
unspecified amount of sponsorship money to the magazine.
Xu said he was initially uneasy with
the school's decision, but following a team meeting it was agreed by all that
it was ultimately a positive thing to provide the study of Chinese medicine
with a respected international academic media platform.
While his article — just one of
eight in the special issue — was not peer-reviewed by Science Magazine staff,
Xu points out that the disclaimer clearly states that all manuscripts were
"critically evaluated by an international editorial team consisting of experts
in traditional medicine research selected by the project editor."
In his case, Xu said, as the
magazine did not have any internal Chinese medicine experts and he could not
review his own article, the project editor put together a team of six experts
in the field — two of which are non-Chinese experts — to form an ad hoc review
panel headed by Cambridge University professor Fan Taiping.
Xu confirmed that the review process
was legitimate and rigorous, adding that his article underwent five drafts
before it was deemed acceptable for print.
The Chinese medicine expert said the
article encapsulates the research he delivered in a high-profile talk at a
Chinese medicine conference in Nanjing last year which attracted Science
Magazine's attention in the first place.
Click
here for the report.
