The Paper reporter Jiang Ziwen intern He Jinwei
Recently, a number of domestic academic institutions and authoritative media have successively released the news that "xxx was elected as an academician of the European Academy of Natural Sciences", which has aroused the attention of public opinion.
According to several official press releases, the "European Academy of Natural Sciences (Europaische Akademie der Naturwissenschaften)" claims to be headquartered in Hannover, Germany, founded by "multinational scientists and academic societies", and is "one of the most recognized and influential scientific organizations in the international cross-regional and academic fields". There are more than 1,700 so-called "academicians of the European Academy of Natural Sciences", mainly "scientists and scholars who have made outstanding achievements in the field of natural sciences", including "Nobel Prize, Einstein Prize, Copernicus Prize winners" and so on.
The surging news search found that the information on "elected members of the European Academy of Natural Sciences" publicly released by domestic authoritative institutions can be traced back to at least 2021. Among them, there are many scientific researchers from Southeast University, Guizhou University, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences and other academic institutions, as well as such as Li Shengxue, chairman of a pharmaceutical company in Jilin, Wang Tong, "president of the China Development Research Institute" (note: "China Development Research Institute" has no record information in the national social organization credit information publicity system) and other social figures.
According to the "China Development Research Institute" website, on April 21, the awarding ceremony of the new "academician" of the "European Academy of Natural Sciences" was held, and Wang Tong was awarded the "Foreign Academician of the European Academy of Natural Sciences".
On April 30, 2024, Shandong media "Poster News" published a report that the reporter interviewed a number of relevant universities, and many university staff said that they did not know about the university's "professor was elected as a member of the European Academy of Natural Sciences". Among them, the staff of North China University of Water Resources and Hydropower and Guizhou University responded that the honor was declared by the individual parties, not through the school, although they had heard relevant rumors, but the school could not verify it.
Subsequently, the poster news reporter searched on the Internet for how to apply for foreign academicians of the European Academy of Natural Sciences, and called the consultation number of an agency that ranked first in Baidu's search results. According to the staff, they said that they can apply for honors including "Academician of the European Academy of Natural Sciences", depending on the applicant's academic qualifications and scientific research achievements. According to the requirements, the applicant's academic qualifications should preferably be a doctoral degree or above, and the most basic is a graduate degree, and the scientific research results should be based on the published papers or patents, and the cost is about 200,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan. If the declaration fails, no fee will be charged.
A review article published by Southern Weekly on May 6 compared the "European Academy of Natural Sciences" to the "Claydon University" in Qian Zhongshu's novel The Siege of the City, in which the protagonist Fang Hongjian traveled abroad for many years, bought a diploma from Claydon University, and after returning to China, went to teach at the university, which later became synonymous with "Pheasant University."
According to the article, "Pheasant University", "Water Journal" and "Shanzhai Academy of Sciences" are actually in the same vein. There is a demand for fake diplomas, fake papers, fake academician titles, and someone creates pheasant, copycat institutions to meet these needs. If someone just wants to spend money to buy a title for themselves, it's not really a public business. However, when they spend tens of millions to get a title, they will definitely not just keep it at home for themselves, but will take it out and use it, and once they take it out and use it, it will become a fraud, a fraud of money, and a fraud of status. Therefore, it is necessary to puncture the mask of the "Claydon University" and the "European Academy of Natural Sciences", so as not to be deceived by the world.
The article points out that, in fact, it is not uncommon for such copycat academic institutions to be favored in the world, including the World Productivity Academy of Sciences, the Nanyang Academy of Sciences in Singapore, and so on, all of which are considered copycats. Just as the domestic academic circles take "publishing papers" as the academic evaluation criterion, many "water journals" with Chinese scholars as the goal have been born, and as long as they pay money, they can publish papers. This has been around for a long time.
Ironically, while being questioned by public opinion, the above-mentioned "European Academy of Natural Sciences" published an open letter on its website on May 3 addressed to "Chinese members of the European Academy of Natural Sciences". The letter claims that due to the pandemic and the economic crisis, its office "had to move" to another new address in Hannover, Germany.
In fact, the "European Academy of Sciences" that is truly widely recognized in the academic community generally refers to the "European Academy of Humanities and Natural Sciences", i.e. Academia Europaea.
According to public information, the European Academy of Sciences (Academia Europaea) was established in 1988 and is the "national academy of sciences" and legal scientific adviser of the European Union, which was jointly initiated by the Royal Society of the United Kingdom and France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and other national academies representing the highest academic level of European countries, headquartered in London, England.
The members of the European Academy of Sciences include internationally renowned scholars in 23 disciplines in four faculties: natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and life sciences. Academicians of the European Academy of Sciences are mainly selected from among academicians from European countries, and the pass rate of foreign academicians does not exceed 5%. Since its inception, nearly 5,500 members of the Academia Europaea (MAE) have been elected, including nearly 90 Nobel laureates.
Not long ago, Wang Hui, a senior professor of liberal arts at Tsinghua University, was officially elected as a member of the European Academy of Sciences in 2024.
This issue is edited by Xing Tan