Ethics and Misconduct

Misconduct: A Question of Intent If we consider the top three categories of scientific misconduct to be, in ascending order, the use of someone else’s work without citation…

If you are a researcher at a university working on a new drug and the company with whom you collaborate sends you a publication for your approval. You request to see the raw data…

Although there are many researchers who are deeply committed to the highest standard of ethics, there are others who take advantage of the system and engage in scientific…

Assessing how rare scientific misconduct might be within the broader scientific research community would be virtually impossible. A scientific misconduct cannot be identified until…

How Do Scientists Cheat? Academic fraud can be broken down into three categories: Plagiarism – the use of a colleague’s work without clear attribution and citation.…

Flawed research, as opposed to deliberately fraudulent research, can be looked at from several angles: The original identification of the topic can be based on a poor…

Only a Representative Sample Students of research methodology and statistical analysis are very familiar with the importance of working with a study sample that can claim to be…

There are several types of errors in research papers are published every year, causing embarrassment to those who truly believe in science and academia’s good procedures. Is it…

Recent retractions of papers due to the absence of rigorous peer reviews have recalled to the international research community the importance of ensuring research accuracy. After…

It is widely believed in the field of scientific research that too many articles are being published. Many research papers are cranked out mainly to pad their author’s resumés, who…

What is Bias in Research? The act of a researcher influencing the process of a systematic investigation either knowingly or unknowingly is termed as "Bias in Research". Research…

Although I like to think that fraud in academic publications is rare, there have been a number of cases where researchers have had to withdraw supposedly groundbreaking research…