Understanding China's construction of an academic integrity system: A grounded theory study on national level policies

Academic integrity has long been an issue of concern to the academic community, and in recent years has attracted attention worldwide. As the country with the world's largest research output, especially as shown during the recent pandemic, China is actively working to combat academic misconduct. To explore China's initiatives and actions in this regard, 75 Chinese official policies from the national level were collected, analysed and reviewed. Based on the policy text, this study examines the construction of the academic integrity system in China. Through grounded theory and text analysis methods, six parts of the policy system were identified: current status, goals and objectives, polycentric governance, cultural-cognitive measures, normative measures and regulative measures. The results show the specific measures taken by China with regards to each part and indicate that an academic integrity system has been formed in China.