Abuse of power for economist to publish son's essay in his journal

Some media reports recently exposed a scholar for writing a lengthy eulogy on his teacher in the Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology, a prestigious academic publication whose chief editor incidentally was the teacher himself. Now, a similar scandal has come to light: an economist published dozens of essays and poems written by his son in the financial journal, Chinese Banker, of which he is editor-in-chief, since his son was just 10 years old in 2006 till three years ago.

In 2014, Wang Songqi, a former deputy director of the Institute of Finance Research, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, even wrote and published an essay, "Dad's Words", in the journal to promote his son's newly published book.

The Chinese Banker promotes reform and development in China's financial industry. Some readers rightly complained that it was wrong for Wang to publish a child's essay in an academic journal. But Wang insisted there was nothing inappropriate about publishing his son's essays in the "cultural and leisure" section given his "son's excellent literary talent". In fact, he continued to publish his son's essays until 2017.

What Wang has done shows how arrogant those abusing power can be. There can be no justification ever for publishing a 10-year-old's essays in an influential financial journal, or for promoting his son's book using the journal as a tool.

This scandal and the one in which the scholar published an essay extolling "the greatness of his teacher and the beauty of the teacher's wife" expose the extent to which academic power can be abused. Which is a new kind of academic corruption. These scholars used academic journals as a channel to achieve their personal goals, and their acts have damaged the academic environment, for which they should be dealt with seriously.

Ironically, academic circles indulge in such behavior for years before they are exposed, which indicates there are loopholes in the supervision mechanism that power abusers can exploit. These loopholes need to be plugged and supervision strengthened.