China-sponsored academic journal dropped by Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press (OUP) will no longer publish a controversial academic journal sponsored by China's ministry of justice after years of concerns that several papers in the publication had not met ethical standards about DNA collection.

- Amy Hawkins

A statement published on the website of Forensic Sciences Research (FSR) states that it will stop publishing the quarterly journal after this year.

FSR comes from China's academy of forensic science, an agency that sits under the ministry of justice. The academy describes it as "the only English quarterly journal in the field of forensic science in China that focuses on forensic medicine". It has been published by OUP since 2023.

Several papers published in the journal have attracted criticism because they studied genetic data from Uyghurs and other heavily surveilled ethnic minorities in China. Critics say subjects in the studies may not have freely consented to their DNA samples being used in the research and that the studies could help to enhance the mass surveillance of those populations.

One study, published in 2020, analysed blood samples from 264 Uyghurs in Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region. The study states that the people giving the samples consented to the research and that their data was anonymised.

The study's lead author is affiliated with China's state security apparatus via the Xinjiang police college, which provided a research grant.