University of Hong Kong professor loses key role over retracted paper
Population expert Paul Yip was corresponding author of paper found to contain AI-generated references to publications that didn’t exist
A prominent population expert from the University of Hong Kong has stepped down as an associate faculty dean and agreed with the retraction of a paper after the institution ruled it contained references to non-existent publications generated by AI.
Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai of the department of social work and social administration had stepped down from his associate deanship at the faculty of social sciences and withdrawn his membership from research committees of the faculty and the university, HKU said on Wednesday.
At the centre of controversy is the paper titled “Forty years of fertility transition in Hong Kong” published in China Population and Development Studies, and of which Yip was its corresponding author.
“The university’s investigation substantiated that certain citations of the paper included non-existent publications generated by AI, which had not been disclosed by a PhD student involved in the research,” HKU said.
“The university has administered disciplinary actions and appropriate measures, including that the corresponding author has stepped down from his associate deanship at the faculty.
“The PhD student involved is also subject to the university’s disciplinary procedures.”