May 4th, a nurse’s thesis from Qilu Hospital of Shandong University went viral online, surprising netizens by revealing that out of 80 cases of uterine fibroid surgeries in the paper, 55 patients were actually male. This raised suspicions of academic fraud among netizens, sparking widespread attention.
According to Jí Mù News, the thesis was published in the “Practical Gynecologic Endocrinology Journal (online version)” on November 29, 2017, authored by Huo Moujing from the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University. This journal is currently China’s only academic periodical in the field of gynecologic endocrinology.
The thesis explicitly states at the beginning that “uterine fibroids are one of the common benign tumors in women.” However, the first part of the thesis claims that the research involved “selecting 80 patients with uterine fibroids who underwent surgical treatment at our hospital from April 2015 to April 2016. Among the control group patients, there were 27 males and 13 females, while among the observation group patients, there were 28 males and 12 females, aged 24 to 55 years.” The proportion of males was even higher than that of females.
The thesis also mentioned that all selected samples were clinically diagnosed with uterine fibroids based on symptoms and gynecological examinations, and all patients signed informed consent forms.
The report stated that a query of the National Health Commission’s nurse professional registration information system showed that Huo Moujing obtained a nurse practice registration issued by the Shandong Provincial Health Commission and was affiliated with Shandong University Qilu Hospital.
The thesis sparked discussions online. Many netizens expressed disbelief, stating, “Even if you ask someone else to write a thesis, don’t you read it yourself at least once? It’s really off the mark.” “Plagiarism can happen in anything.” “Was the reviewer asleep?” “If this thesis could be edited and published, is there an issue with that process too?”
“Currently, 90% of theses have no practical value at all, purely for job titles, useless. Sustaining those who publish and distribute theses and fake journals.”
Some netizens also noticed that the “Practical Gynecologic Endocrinology Journal” in which the thesis was published is a national-level journal, with a netizen pointing out a typo in its official website introduction, sarcastically remarking, “Thinking about it, it’s normal to publish such an article.”
On May 5th, the related topic trended on Weibo’s hot search list.
On May 5th at 5:59 PM, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University issued a statement, stating after investigation, it was found that the circulated thesis had academic misconduct issues. The hospital disciplined nurse Huo Moumou with a demerit and demotion, revoking all her qualifications for promotion within five years.