Three Questions on Anhui University's Plan to Hire a PhD Whose Paper Was Verbatim Plagiarism

Recently, the Human Resources Office website of Anhui University published the "Public Notice on the Proposed 2026 Recruitment List of Anhui University." Among those listed is a PhD candidate surnamed Hui from Renmin University of China's major in Comparative Literature and World Literature, who is proposed for a teaching and research position at the School of Liberal Arts of Anhui University. The Paper has confirmed through multiple sources that this individual surnamed Hui is the same person mentioned in an earlier retraction notice issued by the core journal Drama Art (Xiju Yishu), which cited academic misconduct.

According to the retraction notice from Drama Art, following professional academic-misconduct detection, original-text tracing and comparison, and independent appraisal by third-party experts, it was confirmed that the main content, argumentative framework, and key viewpoints of the paper were verbatim translations of an English-language paper, "and no form of citation or attribution was provided in the text, constituting an act of academic misconduct."

A review of media reports reveals a striking contrast: on one side, Hui's paper was determined to be "verbatim translation" plagiarism; on the other, the same person brazenly made it onto Anhui University's proposed recruitment list—leaving the public with many questions.

First, and most directly: Did Anhui University know that Hui's paper involved academic misconduct before publishing the public notice?

Anhui University's public notice began on July 6, yet as early as June this year, media had already reported on the retraction notice issued by Drama Art. The notice also stated that the author involved, Hui, had admitted to the facts of academic misconduct and expressed sincere apologies. Clearly, the journal's retraction notice predates Anhui University's public notice—meaning that Anhui University was still planning to recruit Hui even after the notice was published and widely circulated by the media and online. What is even more noteworthy is that neither the journal's retraction notice itself nor the widely circulated online reports anonymized Hui's name or university.

Under normal circumstances, Anhui University should have conducted a thorough investigation and vetting of the candidate before recruitment, and could not have missed the "plagiarism stain" already exposed online. Especially at a time when many graduates are struggling to find jobs, this raises an even more troubling question: Have some universities become so short of candidates that they are forced to settle for hiring graduates with a clear "plagiarism stain"? Is that fair to other job seekers?

And if they truly did not know beforehand, then such an oversight is itself quite shocking.

Second, since it is already established that Hui's paper involved misconduct, does Hui's doctoral degree still hold?

The Academic Degree Law, which took effect on January 1, 2025, stipulates that if a degree applicant's or degree holder's thesis or practical achievement is determined, during their studies, to involve academic misconduct such as ghostwriting, plagiarism, or fabrication, the degree-granting institution may, by resolution of its Academic Degree Evaluation Committee, refuse to confer the degree or revoke it. The Academic Degree Law also requires degree applicants to abide by academic ethics and academic norms.

Furthermore, according to the "Measures for the Prevention and Handling of Academic Misconduct in Higher Education Institutions" (Ministry of Education Order No. 40), universities bear the responsibility to proactively investigate and address leads of academic misconduct involving their own students. Pursuant to the "Rules for the Investigation and Handling of Research Integrity Violations," universities should also record students' academic misconduct in their academic integrity files and truthfully reflect it in employment background checks.

This then demands the question: Has Hui already obtained the doctoral degree? If so, did the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee of the institution where Hui studied hold full deliberations on the academic misconduct before deciding to confer the degree? At the very least, the timeline shows that the paper was published in February 2025—right in the middle of Hui's doctoral studies at Renmin University.

The third question is: if a paper written during a student's studies involves misconduct, what responsibility should the supervising advisor bear?

Currently, some self-media accounts have already published posts revealing the identity of Hui's advisor, who holds a prominent position in academia. So in the process of Hui writing and publishing the paper in question, did the advisor bear corresponding responsibilities of "participation" or "gatekeeping"? And how should the university where the advisor is based pursue any potential liability of Hui's advisor?

Scholarship is a public good for society, and fraud must never be tolerated. Recently, from multiple universities launching self-inspections of retracted papers to the "Classmate Geng Tells Stories" account exposing fake papers, society has fostered an atmosphere in which academic misconduct is condemned by all. In such an atmosphere, whether universities, research institutions, or other academic organizations, all should take a more proactive stance in identifying, acknowledging, and resolving problems, and work together to build a cleaner, fairer, and more truth-seeking academic and research environment.

At present, the human resources department and discipline inspection department of Anhui University have stated that they have taken note of the feedback regarding Hui's academic misconduct. We look forward to a thorough investigation and a public response to the three questions above. Of course, this requires the cooperation of another university—ideally through proactive participation.