A Storm on Publications in Science

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While his article — just one of eight in the special issue — was not peer-reviewed by Science Magazine staff, Xu points out that the disclaimer clearly states that all manuscripts were "critically evaluated by an international editorial team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.