Some scholars believe that "the fundamental reason of scientific misconduct lies in the information asymmetry between related subjects." If the information between the project leader, the review experts and the fund management institution is completely symmetrical, that is, the private information of each subject can be fully understood by other subjects, then there is no need for scientific misconduct. " On this basis, the institutional basis of scientific research misconduct is analyzed: lack of scientific research spirit cultivation and scientific research ethics education, short-term interests drive making scientific research misconduct an irrational choice for some people, imperfect supervision mechanism, lack of complete information sharing platform for scientific research misconduct and lack of perfect laws and regulations.

This view attributes the root cause of scientific misconduct to the information asymmetry of relevant subjects. The author thinks that this is only the superficial cause of scientific misconduct, and the imperfect control of scientific misconduct, as well as the control and management after the emergence of scientific misconduct, have little effect on the initial occurrence of scientific misconduct, and can only be a secondary reason at most. Since we are talking about the source of scientific research behavior, we can only explore the source of scientific research misconduct from the social background and the background of the times, and find out the reasons.