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 did not meet ethical standards about DNA collection.
A statement published on the website of Forensic Sciences Research (FSR) states that OUP will stop publishing the quarterly journal after this year.
FSR is a journal that comes from China’s Academy of Forensic Science, an agency that sits under the Ministry of Justice. The academy describes FSR 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 FSR have attracted criticism because they study 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 in north-west China. The paper states that the people giving the samples consented to the research and that their data was anonymised.
The lead author on the study is affiliated with China’s state security apparatus via the Xinjiang Police College, which provided a research grant.
In 2024, OUP published an “expression of concern” about the article, responding to questions about whether or not Uyghurs in Xinjiang could freely refuse to participate in a study conducted by representatives of China’s state security. The paper has not been retracted.
Two other papers published in FSR based on DNA samples from Chinese populations have been retracted by OUP since 2023 because of ethical concerns. In both cases, several of the researchers came from Chinese police authorities.
Forensic science research is often carried out under the auspices of police authorities, but in China, where there the state security apparatus is not subject to checks and balances, there is concern this kind of research may not meet international ethical standards.
Uyghurs in Xinjiang are subject to intense surveillance by state authorities and between 2016 and 2018 about a million of them are estimated to have been detained in what China calls “vocational training centres”. The UN said China’s policies in Xinjiang could constitute crimes against humanity. There are also reports of Xinjiang authorities collecting DNA samples from millions of Uyghurs under the guise of health checks, but which Uyghurs and human rights groups have said are compulsory and designed to enhance surveillance.
Yves Moreau, a professor of engineering at the University of Leuven in Belgium who focuses on DNA analysis, first raised concerns about OUP’s relationship with FSR and about several studies. He said he was grateful for OUP’s decision but that the brief public statement on the matter “fails to address the important issues at stake”.
A statement published on FSR’s website, which is hosted by OUP, said: “Forensic Sciences Research will no longer be published by Oxford University Press (OUP) after the 2025 volume. The last issue published by OUP will be Volume 10, Issue 4.”
OUP acquired the journal in 2023. Under the terms of the publishing agreement between OUP and the Academy of Forensic Sciences, a copy of which was seen by the Guardian, the deal gave OUP the right to solicit paid advertisers in the pages of the journal. The agreement also gives OUP the right to collect any revenues received by the Academy of Forensic Sciences related to the journal.
OUP declined to elaborate on why it was ending the relationship with FSR.
In recent years there has been increasing scrutiny about the ethical standards of genetic research papers from China. Last year, a genetics journal from a leading scientific publisher retracted 18 papers from China due to concerns about human rights.
The concerns centre on whether or not vulnerable populations in China can freely refuse to participate, especially when researchers come from organisations, such as the police, affiliated with state security. There are also concerns that this kind of forensic DNA sampling could produce research that enhances the mass surveillance of those populations.
Moreau said: “Forensic genetics is an area where specific caution is needed because this is the research that powers police DNA identification and databases. While DNA identification is a valuable technique to help solve crimes, it can raise privacy and ethical issues.” He added that the mass surveillance of minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet made China a particularly challenging country to enforce international norms about ethical research and human rights.
FSR’s launch in 2016 was accompanied by an editorial that stated it is sponsored by an affiliate of China’s Ministry of Justice. Duarte Nuno Vieira, the co-editor-in-chief of FSR, has previously denied financial support from China’s Ministry of Justice had any impact on the journal’s editorial policies.
Nuno Vieira did not respond to a request for comment. But in an article published on Tuesday, the FSR editors wrote that the journal was at “a moment of transformation, firmly rooted in its past successes, and yet reaching with confident hands towards an even more luminous future”. The publication of the journal will be taken over by KeAi, a China-based joint venture run by the Dutch scientific publisher Elsevier and a Chinese partner.
China’s Ministry of Justice and the Academy of Forensic Sciences did not respond to a request for comment.