Code of Conduct in Publishing in International Academic Journals (Five No's)
Special Panel on Ethics and Rights of Scientific and Technological Workers, Standing Committee of China Association for Science and Technology
Recent years have witnessed great progress China's science and technology and a significant increase in the number and quality of papers published in international academic journals by Chinese authors. Such achievements are worth acclaiming, but we have also seen some problems exposed, such as irregularities in publishing in international academic journals. In this regard, we are now reaffirming some moral rules for scientists. China Association for Science and Technology, after consulting with parties concerned, has formulated the "Five No’s" code of conduct. The "third party" in the “Five No’s” Code of Conduct refers to any organization or individual other than the authors and journals; "ghostwriting" refers to the act that the author have others write his paper rather than write it by himself basing on his own research work and real experimental data; "hiring submission surrogate" means the author himself does not submit papers and respond to review comment and have others do this for him. It is required that all scientist abide by “Five No's" Code of Conduct.
1．No hiring a third party to ghostwrite papers.
2．No hiring a third party to submit papers for them.
3．No hiring a third to modify papers in the name of “polishing”. Polishing should be limited only to the usage of language and must not lead to any changes in substance.
4．No giving false information about peer reviewers.
5．No violating authorship rules. Each and every author must have actual academic contribution to the paper, agree to the publishing of the paper and express informed consent.