China’s government has started asserting tight control over COVID-19 research findings. Over the past two months, it appears to have quietly introduced policies that require scientists to get approval to publish or publicize their results, according to documents seen by Nature and some researchers.
This fits with media reports that at least two Chinese universities have posted notices online stating that research on the virus’s origins needs to be approved by the university’s academic committee and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) or Ministry of Education (MOE) before being submitted for publication.
Scientists in China say the changes are probably a response to poor-quality studies on the virus, which have been posted online and reported widely and several welcome them. But some academics have suggested that the policies are part of China’s attempt to control information about the start of the outbreak.
Awareness of the new rules is mixed among researchers working on the virus in China. Some scientists who spoke to Nature say they heard about the vetting process from their institutions, but others were in the dark. The ministries seem not to have posted notices about the policies on their websites, and they have not yet responded to Nature’s attempts to confirm that they have released the documents.
Researchers outside the country are concerned that the vetting process could delay publication of important insights that could help to control the pandemic. Some also fear that the Chinese government is interfering in the scientific review process.
Researchers and research institutions should be free to share knowledge without oversight in general, provided it has been conducted according to our current ethical conventions and standards, says Ashley St. John, a virologist at the DukeNUS Medical School in Singapore. Where there is a review or vetting process in place, it should be only scientific in nature.
Last month, China’s foreign-ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, made sensational claims that the virus might have come to the country from the United States, prompting concerns that the Chinese government’s statements were not always guided by science. Although the exact origin of the virus is unknown, researchers think it probably came from bats and then spread to a carrier animal before infecting the first people somewhere in central China late last year.
2020 Springer Nature Limited