Anhui University Responds to “Prospective Hire of a PhD Whose Work Was Deemed Academic Misconduct by a Journal”: Investigation to Begin Once Public Notice Perio

Recently, news that a doctoral student whose work was found by a core journal to involve academic misconduct — and was subsequently retracted — is set to join Anhui University has continued to spark discussion within China's academic community.

The Paper's reporters noted that the discussion was triggered by a “Public Notice of Anhui University's Proposed 2026 Appointments,” published on the website of the university's Human Resources Office on July 6, 2026. Among the 27 candidates on the list is a doctoral student surnamed Hui (anonymous), from Renmin University of China's program in Comparative Literature and World Literature, who is slated to be hired for a teaching and research position at Anhui University's School of Chinese Language and Literature.

The public notice period runs for seven days, from July 6 to July 12, 2026.

The Paper confirmed through multiple sources that the Ms. Hui listed in Anhui University's notice for the teaching and research post at the School of Chinese Language and Literature is the same person named in an earlier retraction notice issued by the core journal Theatre Arts, which cited academic misconduct.

In response, The Paper called Anhui University's Human Resources Office. A staff member said that both the university's human resources and discipline-inspection departments had taken note of the feedback regarding Ms. Hui's academic misconduct. The hiring of Ms. Hui is currently in the public notice period, during which the university primarily collects feedback from all channels; once the notice period ends, it will initiate a verification process for information received through various channels.

Subsequently, The Paper also called Anhui University's Discipline Inspection and Supervision Office, whose staff likewise said they had received relevant feedback and are currently verifying the individual's information.

The editorial board of Theatre Arts published a “Retraction Notice” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”) in its third issue of June 2026 (total issue No. 251).

The Notice states that the journal recently received a report of academic misconduct concerning a previously published paper, “Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Theory of Gender–Economic Relations and the Woman Question in Modern Drama” (author: Ms. Hui; published in the second issue of 2025). The journal attached great importance to the matter and, strictly in accordance with academic publishing ethics standards, launched an investigation procedure.

Through professional academic-misconduct detection, original-source tracing and comparison, and independent assessment by third-party experts, it was confirmed that the principal content, argumentative framework, and presentation of key viewpoints of the paper constitute a verbatim translation of Andrew Tolle's master's thesis, Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Naturalist Playwright (University of North Texas, May 2012), without any form of citation or attribution in the text, which constitutes academic misconduct.

The Notice states that during the investigation, the author involved, Ms. Hui, acknowledged the facts of the academic misconduct, expressed sincere apologies, and voluntarily applied to the journal to retract the manuscript. Taking into account both the investigation findings and the author's attitude, the journal, in accordance with relevant procedures, made the following decisions: to formally revoke the publication status of “Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Theory of Gender–Economic Relations and the Woman Question in Modern Drama” in the journal; and to immediately flag the paper for retraction on the relevant academic database platforms.

In the Notice, the editorial board of Theatre Arts stated that the journal firmly upholds the credibility of academic publishing, maintains a zero-tolerance stance toward academic misconduct, and will continue to improve its manuscript-review mechanisms and adopt stricter measures to prevent academic misconduct going forward.

Publicly available information shows that Theatre Arts, founded in 1978, is a national Chinese core journal, a source journal for the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI), a source journal for the Chinese Academic Journal Comprehensive Evaluation Database, and a source journal for the National Philosophy and Social Sciences Academic Journal Database.