‘Student Geng’ ignites research-integrity scandal in China after calling out senior academics
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Geng Hongwei’s videos have sparked fierce debate on Chinese social media.Credit: Tom Houghton/Nature<br>Four senior Chinese academics have been disciplined after a blogger and former PhD student flagged data anomalies in their published papers and went viral in the process.<br>A blogger known as Student Geng, whose real name is Geng Hongwei, questioned the authenticity of the data in five papers and named five acclaimed researchers at four Chinese universities who co-authored the publications. The papers were published in Nature1 and three Nature-branded journals2–5. One accused researcher is under investigation at his university — the others have faced steep consequences following their institutions’ inquiries.<br>Data manipulation<br>In a series of videos published on Chinese social media in April and May, each lasting around five minutes and so far collectively watched almost ten million times, Geng explains how he analysed patterns in the data and concluded that the figures might have been fabricated.<br>For example, he assessed a spreadsheet in the source data of a paper published in Nature in November 2024 that studied how an enzyme in human bodies could regulate DNA damage1. Of the 280 data points in the spreadsheet, 76% ended with the number five, whereas only 6% ended with the number six, the second-most-common final digit. Geng explained that this pattern is extremely statistically unlikely.<br>Geng interpreted this as evidence of data manipulation: “Are you telling me that these figures are authentic?” he asked in one video. After giving more examples of figures ending with five in the same paper, he mocked: “These tables show the authors’ love for the number five.”<br>In April, an editor’s note was posted to the paper, alerting readers to concerns about data reliability and saying an investigation was under way. Editor’s notes were added to the four other papers in May and June.<br>In another spreadsheet, from a paper published in Nature Cancer6 in January 2024 that proposed a way to fight hard-to-treat cancers, the two digits after the decimal point of each of its 64 figures are identical to those of the figures located in the cell in the same position on the next sheet, suggesting that they might have been fabricated, Geng says.<br>“These two tables show that the authors do not care about their readers and despise the authority of scientific research,” Geng jokingly commented.<br>Geng has also alleged in his videos that a further four papers in the Nature portfolio contained irregularities in their data, but he has not named those papers’ authors and their institutions have not announced investigations.<br>After being contacted for comment, Erika Pastrana, vice-president of Nature research and reviews journals at Springer Nature said: “All the papers are being carefully investigated by the SN Research Integrity Group, alongside editorial assessments of the concerns raised, engagement with authors and, where appropriate, consultation with independent experts and relevant institutions.”<br>“We take research-integrity concerns very seriously and have multiple tools and processes in place to identify potential concerns. Nature Portfolio journals have a long-standing commitment to transparency, rigour and innovation in peer review. Our data and reporting policies are among the most comprehensive in selective publishing, supporting both editorial assessment and post-publication scrutiny. This level of transparency can also mean that concerns are more readily identified and examined upon publication, which is an important part of maintaining a robust and self-correcting scientific record,” Pastrana said. Nature’s careers and news teams are independent of Nature’s research section and its publisher, Springer Nature.<br>Institutional action<br>All four universities published statements shortly after Geng’s videos went live, informing the public that they had launched investigations. Three of them, Tongji University in Shanghai, Nankai University in Tianjin and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, have since disciplined the accused academics and pledged to strengthen their supervision of students and faculty in future. It remains unclear whether the these universities will publish more details from the investigations.<br>Wang Ping, former dean of the School of Life Sciences and Technology at Tongji University, was the first to be penalized. He was removed from his position as...