China should make academic fraud a crime to curb dishonesty, a deputy of National People's Congress (NPC) proposed at the annual two sessions, China Youth Daily reported Friday.

"Academic misconduct seriously impacts the social credibility of scientific research and provides a hotbed for corruption," said Yan Xijun, a deputy of NPC. "Academic cheating has widened from academic papers to the high-tech fields, which not only involves young students, but also senior experts."

"Although lots of measures have been carried out to enhance academic ethics, it still weak to curb academic dishonesty. Laws and regulations are needed to standardize academic fraud and a public supervision system is needed as well as an investigation department," Yan said.

Yan also proposed authorities set more severe punishment for those who receive research funds or awards money by academic cheating.