The State Council General Office recently issued guidelines from the Ministry of Science and Technology on accelerating the establishment of a national scientific and technical reporting system, in a bid to promote the completion of archiving, open sharing, transformation and application of scientific and technical achievements.

The guidelines require that researchers working on fiscal funded projects must submit scientific and technical reports. The administrative departments of science and technology, authorities in charge of projects - and those carrying out the projects - should assume their responsibilities, establish and improve the management of the national scientific and technical reporting mechanism and open sharing system, and gradually improve the relevant policies, standards and norms, so as to establish a unified national scientific reporting system.

The guidelines consist of 13 principles, including:

The coordinated management of the national scientific and technical reporting system should be strengthened. The Ministry of Science and Technology should focus on the overall planning, organization and coordination, supervision and inspection of the reporting system, including setting up relevant policies, standards and systems, and offering professional guidance to local governments and central departments.

The responsibilities of each management body should be clearly stated.

All local governments and relevant departments should make sure that it is clearly stated in research contracts that those responsible for projects are required to submit scientific reports that meet specific standards. The management of scientific and technical reports should be assigned to established institutions, and non-classified and declassified reports should be regularly submitted to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Those responsible for projects should establish a reporting mechanism, organize researchers to complete reports as required by their contracts - and promptly submit them to the project authorities.

The archiving and collection process related to the scientific and technical reports should be improved.

Local governments and departments should aim to collect reports concerning completed scientific and technical projects. Researchers working on projects sponsored by social capital are encouraged to submit their reports to the Ministry of Science and Technology or its delegate agencies through the national scientific and technical reporting services system. The Ministry of Science and its delegate agencies are in charge of the processing, collection and management of all the reports.

Additionally, a sharing mechanism concerning the reports should be established.

The Ministry of Science and Technology should provide an open sharing service to the authorities in charge of projects and those who carry out the projects, researchers - and also the public - via the national scientific and technical reporting service system. The Ministry of Science and Technology and the authorities in charge of the projects should focus on ensuring security and confidentiality and the protection of intellectual property in sharing services, so as to protect the rights and interests of researchers and those carrying out the projects.

An incentive mechanism should be established. Also, projects that are carried out without accompanying reports will not be accepted - and they will be considered incomplete. Regarding incidents of plagiarism, falsification of data and other academic misconduct related to scientific reports - the incidents will be clearly stated in the professional files of the researchers who break the rules, and will be made public in accordance with relevant regulations.

A good environment for scientific and technical reporting should be created. Training in such reporting should be organized to assist researchers, and to standardize the management of the reports by supervising departments and research institutes.