Abstract: The issue of research integrity has become a socially heated topic since the Zhai Tianlin incident in early 2019. The same issue among Chinese researchers has attracted the attention of international academic community since the Han Chunyu incident in 2017. Instead of taking the ethical angle, this paper tackles the issue of research integrity by incorporating the analytical skills from political philosophy and the game theory. Maintaining research integrity and protecting academic reputation does not just egotistically and strategically protects the researchers themselves, but at the same while politically and socially protect the academic community.

Key words: research integrity, original trust, reputation-responsiveness, political wisdom, game theory