First Prize for Primary School Student's Cancer Research Paper Revoked (Attached with Full Notice)

First prize for primary school student's cancer research paper revoked

On July 15, the Office of the Organizing Committee of the 34th Yunnan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition issued a report on the investigation and handling results of the "primary school student's cancer research paper" incident, and decided to revoke the first prize of the 34th Yunnan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Project (primary school group) and take back the medal and certificate.

The full text of the notice is as follows:

Recently, online reports questioning the third-prize winning project in the primary school group of the 34th National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition, "Research on the Function and Mechanism of C10orf67 in the Development of Colorectal Cancer," have attracted social attention. We quickly set up a special investigation team to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the competition’s judging work. The review committee organized experts to review this project in a timely manner, and now reports the relevant investigation and handling results as follows:

The expert group believes that the project research report "Research on the Function and Mechanism of C10orf67 in the Development of Colorectal Cancer" has a high level of professionalism and academic level, but its attached supporting materials and new situations and materials discovered during the investigation and visits cannot fully prove that the author independently completed the overall design and writing of the project report. The expert group determined that the professional level of the project research report exceeded the author's cognitive level and writing ability, and that it was impossible for the project research report to be written independently by the author himself. Based on the above situation, the jury recommends that the writing of the project research report does not comply with Article 3 of the "National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition Rules (Revised in 2018)" evaluation principles: "The project research report must be written by the author himself." The first prize of the 34th Yunnan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Project (Primary School Group) is revoked. Based on the recommendation of the jury, the organizing committee of the competition decided to revoke the first prize of the 34th Yunnan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Project (Primary School Group) for this project and to take back the medal and certificate.

We would like to thank the news media and the public for their concern and attention to the competition, and hope that they will continue to criticize and correct our work. We sincerely apologize for the social impact caused by our mistakes in work. We will learn lessons, reflect deeply, draw inferences from one instance to another, conduct self-inspection and self-correction, improve mechanisms, strengthen supervision, and carry out our work strictly in accordance with the competition's evaluation rules and procedures to create a fair, open and just competition ecological environment.
Recently, a paper by an elementary school student on cancer research won the third prize in the National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition, which aroused widespread public attention and doubts. Netizens couldn't help but sigh, "If the third prize is so impressive, what does the first prize look like?" Some netizens found that the first prizes in recent National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competitions can be described as "high-end and cutting-edge", and many of them involve cutting-edge scientific research projects in biomedical fields such as genetics and anti-cancer.

The father of the winning elementary school student apologized:
Excessive involvement in the compilation of project documents

The father of the award-winning elementary school student, Chen Yongbin, explained the relevant situation on the evening of the 15th, admitting that he had been overly involved in the compilation process of the project book text materials, and solemnly apologized to the society for this.

Chen Yongbin said that his son was influenced by his family environment and was exposed to relevant scientific knowledge since he was a child and developed a strong interest in scientific research. The child chose this topic based on his own scientific research interests. Under the joint guidance of the school instructor, parents and graduate students in the research group, he obtained the main experimental data of the project through observation and learning and personal experimental operations, and basically mastered the basic concepts and research methods involved in the project.

Chen Yongbin stated that during the project application process, he did not fully grasp and understand the key information released by the organizing committee that "the project report must be written by the author himself", overly participated in the compilation process of the project book text materials, and used a large number of biomedical professional terms, causing confusion and misunderstanding to the majority of netizens and the media. I solemnly apologize for the great harm caused to the competition organizing committee, my work unit and my family, as well as the negative social impact caused by my negligence and fault.

At the same time, Chen Yongbin stated that he would like to make the following application to the organizing committee of the competition on behalf of his child: to apply to hand over the award won for the project, and to respect and obey the organizing committee's opinions on the award for the project.

Chen Yongbin said that the child suffered great mental pressure due to this public opinion. As a father, he humbly accepts everyone's supervision and criticism, and sincerely pleads for tolerance and understanding from netizens and the media.