Enhancing Academic Integrity: Drivers, Barriers, and Governance Pathways in China

ABSTRACT In recent years, the rapid growth in global research output has been accompanied by an increasing challenge of research integrity. This study, taking China as an example, systematically examines the drivers, barriers, and governance strategies of research integrity through policy text analysis and in‐depth interviews, revealing a complex network of problems composed of institutional pressure, alienation of evaluation systems, and technical challenges. It finds the culture of ‘publish or perish’ resulting from a quantitative assessment system, uneven distribution of research resources, and lack of enough academic ethics education to be the main barriers to research integrity. Although the government has established a multi‐level governance system, policy implementation still faces challenges. With the rapid development of AI technology, new forms of academic misconduct pose challenges to the traditional regulatory model. Based on the research findings, this paper proposes suggestions to promote research integrity, ranging from passive compliance to active self‐discipline.