An Anesthesiologist Conducting Materials Science Research
LIN Qun (林群), an anesthesiologist at the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, has published three materials science articles focusing on the photocatalytic properties of nanomaterials, topics that are entirely unrelated to his professional background.
These three articles were published between 2021 and 202.5 in collaboration with a research group at Fuzhou University, with LONG Jinlin appearing as one of the core authors. LIN Qun is the only author affiliated with the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University. According to publicly available information, LIN received his medical doctor degree in 2005. During the same period (2021–202.5), LIN also published several articles in medical research fields. These facts collectively suggest that LIN lacks a background in materials science, and his inclusion as an author on those three materials science articles may be a case of gifted authorship.
LIN Qun is not an isolated case. The 5GH Team conducted a search on the ScienceDirect database using the keywords "rGO and photocatalytic" and filtered the results by affiliation to hospitals in China. The search yielded 298 articles, revealing a clear trend of increasing publications in recent years.
Employees at hospitals in China face intense pressure to publish more articles to meet KPI requirements and secure promotions. This pressure drives them to target materials science journals, which typically offer higher impact factors and larger publication volumes compared to clinical journals. Consequently, some hospital employees turn to colleagues for gifted authorship or even purchase articles from third parties. This practice is not only unethical but also a waste of public resources.