Recently, there is a "virtual professor" named "Wei Xinhe" who frequently appears in academic conferences and papers, and when I check it, this person does not exist at all! It's not a movie plot, it's a real academic oddity.
In 2019, Wei Xinhe, who claimed to be a "professor at Liaoning University of Science and Technology" at the time, began to appear at different academic conferences. His name appears on conference lists and as an author or collaborator in various scholarly journals and conference proceedings. Oddly enough, despite his frequent appearance, few people have actually seen him.
As time went on, Wei Xinhe's academic footprint became more and more extensive, from Liaoning University of Science and Technology to Liaoning University of Technology, and then to various obscure academic institutions, and his title also changed from associate professor to professor, and even sometimes appeared in the name of dean. His research fields cover Marxist theory, law, ideological and political education and other aspects, and he seems to have made remarkable academic achievements.
In 2023, things are starting to take a turn for the better. Some vigilant scholars began to question the authenticity of Wei Xinhe. They tried to contact Liaoning University of Science and Technology and Liaoning University of Technology to learn more about Wei Xinhe. As a result, both schools said that there was no such person in the school. The discovery immediately sent shockwaves through the academic community.
Further investigation showed that most of Wei's so-called research results were pieced together. Most of his papers were extracted from other literature, slightly modified and falsified into new research. This kind of behavior is extremely serious misconduct in the academic world, enough to bring shame on any scholar.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Wei Xinhe is nothing more than a fictitious identity, and there may be one or more people behind it. The discovery sparked a flurry of reactions, with academics beginning to examine themselves, and multiple academic conferences and journals beginning to take stock of records from the past few years to ensure that similar false identities were no longer involved.
They are trying to track down the real manipulators behind this fictitious identity, hoping to find out who is behind this academic scam. From network traces to meeting videos, every place that might leave a clue has become the object of investigation.
During the investigation, some interesting details have also surfaced. For example, Wei Xinhe's registered email address for an academic forum is actually a public email service, and the registered phone number is also a virtual number that has been deactivated. All of this shows that the people who planned it all were extremely cautious and left few clues to follow.
As the investigation deepened, some scholars who had cooperated with "Wei Xinhe" also began to speak out. Most of them said that although they had worked with Mr. Wei in name, they had never actually met him face-to-face, and that all of their cooperation was done through email and web conferences. This strengthened the outside world's perception that Wei Xinhe was a fictitious identity.