Student stripped of science prize after dad's role revealed

The father of a primary school student who won third prize at a national science contest last year for work on colorectal cancer has acknowledged and apologized for his “over-involvement” in his child’s project, he said in a statement on ScienceNet.cn on Wednesday.

The winning project focuses on the function of the C10orf67 gene in the development of colorectal cancer. It received third prize at the 34th China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest (CASTIC) and first prize at the 34th Yunnan Province Adolescents Science and Technology Innovative Project Contest.

On the same day, an official announcement from the office of CASTIC's organizing committee declared the prize canceled, recalling the medal and certificate awarded to the sixth-grader. According to professionals on CASTIC’s investigative team, the project violated its independent work requirement. A comprehensive review of the project found it of a professionalism outside of the cognitive level and writing ability of a sixth-grader, making it impossible that the winning research paper was produced independently.

The national contest is jointly hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology, ministries of science, education, ecology and environment and other government bodies. It attracts around 10 million adolescents per year, the contest's website says.

The project was part of the contest’s primary school category, but its legitimacy was called into question after many netizens found it on par with the work of a master- or doctoral-level student.

Information released on the CASTIC website showed parts of the project had been done at the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, while the only credited researcher was a sixth grader from Kunming, Yunnan Province, surnamed Chen.

It was also found that the contents of young Chen's project overlapped with the research direction of Chen Yongbin, a research fellow at the institute who co-authored a study on the C10orf67 gene published in December 2019, fueling speculation that he was the boy's father.

The Kunming Institute launched an investigation and found the student was the son of Chen Yongbin.

Chen Yongbin issued a written statement on ScienceNet.cn. He acknowledged the winning youngster as his son and said that the primary data used in the project had been obtained by the child with joint guidance from his school tutor, parents and graduate students. He admitted his own failure to comprehend the CASTIC committee’s integrity requirement (the report must be written by the author himself), which led to his excessive participation in the text compilation process of his son’s research project.

Chen apologized for his negligence, the harm caused to the competition organizing committee, his work unit and his family members, and for the negative impact of his actions upon society. He explained his submission of an application for the recall of the award on behalf of his child and expressed compliance with CASTIC’s decisions.

Following this incident, several other winning projects from CASTIC have come under scrutiny for being similarly above the skill-level of primary school students. Questioned projects include one co-authored by two primary school “child prodigies” on combating cancer with tea-drinking, which looks at how tea polyphenols can affect tumor growth. The project won third prize at the 33rd CASTIC and first prize in a Wuhan contest.

The Wuhan Science Association has responded with acknowledgement of the issue and has launched an investigation.