{"id":2832,"date":"2019-05-31T11:10:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T11:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/ieee-revokes-shortlived-ban-on-huawei-employees-from-peer-reviewing-manuscripts\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:35:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:35:06","slug":"ieee-revokes-shortlived-ban-on-huawei-employees-from-peer-reviewing-manuscripts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/ieee-revokes-shortlived-ban-on-huawei-employees-from-peer-reviewing-manuscripts","title":{"rendered":"IEEE revokes shortlived ban on Huawei employees from peer reviewing manuscripts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a prominent U.S.-based professional organization and publisher of technical research\u00a0banned Huawei-affiliated scientists from participating in its peer review process. However, the ban has now been lifted.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The ban was implemented after the U.S. Department of Commerce\u2019s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications company (and the world\u2019s largest supplier of cell phones and wireless data networks) to a list of companies that require the U.S. government\u2019s approval before buying or selling\u00a0technology and software.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A screenshot of an email instructing Editors-in-Chief of IEEE journals to exclude Huawei colleagues from peer review was widely shared on Chinese social media. IEEE confirmed the news in a statement<\/a> released on May 29, 2019.\u00a0According to the statement, the decision to prohibit Huawei employees from peer reviewing articles submitted to IEEE journals was taken to follow the U.S. government regulations that barred\u00a0Huawei employees from participating in \u201ccertain activities that are not generally open to the public,\u201d which\u00a0included \u201c<\/span>certain aspects of the publication peer review and editorial process.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Failure to comply with these regulations would lead to severe legal consequences for the journals \u201cincluding fines or prison sentences,\u201d the statement read. It further stated that\u00a0scientists affiliated with Huawei would not be able to \u201c<\/span>receive or access materials submitted by other persons until after IEE has accepted the material for publication<\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

IEEE had\u00a0assured that Huawei employees can continue to submit articles to the organization\u2019s journals, apply for grants, participate in IEEE-sponsored conferences, and as members of the association, exercise their voting rights and comment in public discussions regarding new standards of technology.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, IEEE\u2019s decision sent shockwaves across the scientific community.\u00a0IEEE is the world\u2019s largest technical professional organization, has 422,000 members from 160 countries, and publishes 200 journals and magazines. Therefore,\u00a0such a move sparked discussions about\u00a0how this is an example of political interference in academia, a gross violation of academic freedom, and an impediment to scientific development.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span><\/span>Academic freedom just took a back seat to the US trade war<\/span><\/a>,\u201d tweeted Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey, U.K. He added that since finding reviewers is difficult in some niche, technical fields, \u201ccutting off a whole cadre of expertise is really short sighted<\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Reacting similarly,\u00a0Zhou Zhihua, a\u00a0professor of computer science at Nanjing University, said in a video posted on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website,\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>IEEE’s ban of Huawei is harm to the international academic community<\/span><\/a>.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As a mark of protest, Professor Haixia Zhang from the Institute of Microelectronics at Peking University resigned from the editorial boards of two IEEE journals. Prof. Zhang wrote in an\u00a0<\/span>open letter<\/a>\u00a0that the IEEE\u2019s decision is\u00a0<\/span>\u201cfar beyond the basic line of Science and Technology\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and that this move challenges her professional integrity.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On Monday, IEEE\u00a0<\/span>announced<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0that the ban was revoked after US Department of Commerce confirmed that the trade restrictions are not applicable to IEEE’s activities. The <\/span>statement clarifies that: “Our initial, more restrictive approach was motivated solely by our desire to protect our volunteers and our members from legal risk.”\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What are your thoughts on this issue? Please leave your comments below.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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