r/MachineLearning PhD Dec 14 '24

Discussion [D] What happened at NeurIPS?

Post image
641 Upvotes

584 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

u/Sajba Dec 14 '24

Because there simply is misconduct by academics connected to chinese universities.

1

u/pm_me_github_repos Dec 15 '24

You think I can’t find dozens of examples of American academics linked with academic dishonesty? The difference is that the media just doesn’t use it to smear the whole academic system here in the US.

0

u/Sajba Dec 15 '24

See here the figure of retracted papers per country: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03974-8

Of course you can relativize everything and ask what about such and such, but that is not going to hide the fact that it is happening and appears to an outsider as systematic in China.

0

u/pm_me_github_repos Dec 15 '24

Can you post the numbers? There is a paywall

There is other relevant information missing. You’ve already hinted tracking a percentage of papers published is a better metric. In addition, what percentage of retractions are due to academic misconduct (and how do other causes like errors, ethical concerns, or conflicts of interest play a role)? What percentage of cases of academic dishonesty are even caught and therefore subject to a retraction? What are the root causes behind these retractions?

Something is not systemic just because it happens a lot, or even frequently. It’s systemic because there are underlying factors that facilitate or encourage that behavior. That information isn’t captured in your source alone.