Publication Misconduct: Definition, Concept, Problems that Lead to Unethical Behaviour and Vice Versa

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Dr. Dushyant Nimavat

Professor in English,

Department of English, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

Email-dushyantnimavat76@gmail.com

Why honesty in research?

Universities today

• Between 40 and 70 percent of all college students have admitted cheating.

(India Today. Special Issue on Higher Education -February 2019)

• Researchers have identified factors that influence dishonest behavior:

-competition and pressure

-faculty perceived as uncaring or indifferent

-lax attitude of faculty toward dishonesty

-peer pressure to support a friend; and

-campus culture is tolerant of dishonesty.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/If-you-are...plagiarism..

What Is Academic Integrity?

• Honesty to oneself and others
• Trust and open communication between students and faculty
• Fair treatment and mutual respect between faculty and students
• Personal responsibility to assist in preventing cheating.

The Clemson University International Center for Academic Integrity . (October 1999).

The fundamental values of academic integrity.

Ethics

• One can observe the ethical behaviour through the habits.�- sincerity, honesty� -truthfulness� -respect for self and others� -respect for time� -respect for work� -respect for our environment�

Why Ethics in Research?

• Need to discuss “unethical studies” – led to the development of Ethical Codes and Regulations

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• Nazi Medical Experiments in Germany.

Nazi Medical Experiments

• 1933 to 1945 – unethical activities implemented by the Germans in Europe

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• Programs included:
• Sterilization
• Euthanasia
• numerous experiments to produce the pure Germans & Aryans

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Conflicts of Ethics

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• People may disagree on ‘ethics’ because it is based on people's personal value systems

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• What one person considers to be ‘good’ or ‘right’ may be considered ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ by another person

Publication�

• A publication is defined as anything that has been published make that content available to the general public.

Example: A research paper, a article etc.

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Key:

• A research paper describes the output of research.
• It accelerates for your further research activities

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Why is Publication needed? What is its importance ?�

• Writing is the most important means for
• communicating scientific work.
• Research and publication complement teaching and training, clinical care, and public health
• works.
• Publication in peer-reviewed journals also gives international recognition for an individual, department, university, and institutions.
• It enhances your research findings and work

Misconduct- General Aspect�

• In law, misconduct is wrongful, improper, or unlawful conduct motivated by premeditated or intentional purpose to the consequences of one's acts.
• Misconduct can be considered an unacceptable or improper behaviour, especially for a professional person.

Publication Misconduct�

• Publication misconduct includes plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate authorship and duplicate submission/multiple submissions.

Why does this happen??

• Force, no time, deadline, lack of

interest, conflict of interest etc.

Forms or types of Publication�Misconduct�

• Plagiarism
• Fabrication
• Falsification
• Inappropriate authorship
• Duplicate submission or Multiple
• submissions
• Overlapping publication
• Salami publication

Fabrication�

• Fabrication is the practice of making up data or results without having performed relevant research.

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Falsification:�

• Falsification is the practice of changing data or results intentionally such that misleading conclusion is derived.

Inappropriate authorship

• Authorship is not appropriately assigned based on the author’s contributions.

 Honorary authorship

 Courtesy authorship

 Guest authorship

 Ghost authorship

Duplicate submission/multiple submissions�

• Duplicate submission/multiple submissions refers to practice of submitting the same manuscript or several manuscripts with minor differences.

(e.g., differences only in title, keywords, abstract, author order, author affiliations, or a small amount of text) to two or more journals at the same time, or submitting to another journal within an agreed or stipulated period.

Overlapping publication�

• Overlapping publication refers to the practice of publishing a paper overlaps substantially with one already published or submitted.

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Salami publication

• Salami publication refers to the practice of slicing data from a large study, could have been reported in a single paper, into different pieces and publishing them in two or more articles, all of which cover the same population, methods, and question.

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Case Study�

Academic Publication

• Academic publishing depends, to a great extent, on trust.
• Editors trust peer reviewers to provide fair assessments, authors trust
• Editors to select appropriate peer reviewers, and readers put their trust in
• the peer-review process.
• Academic publishing also occurs in an environment of powerful
• intellectual, financial, and sometimes political interests that may collide or compete.

• Good decisions and strong editorial processes designed to manage these interests will foster a sustainable and efficient publishing system, which will benefit academic societies, journal editors, authors, research funders, readers, and publishers.
• Good publication practices do not develop by chance, and will become established only if they are actively promoted.

TRANSPARENCY�

Conclusion�

• Generally academic misconduct likely more prevalent & severe as benefits of misconduct higher, costs lower and detection risk is lower
• Factors increasing benefit of misconduct
• Increasing publication pressure
• Overburdened reviewers
• Co-authors who are happy to score additional publication

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• Possible remedies against misconduct
• Good mentoring
• Appropriately trained support staff
• Blinded assessment of data
• Data review
• Effective internal and external committees
• Strong departmental leadership

Links which will help�

• https://publicationethics.org/files/retractionguidelines.

Pdf

• https://publicationethics.org/files/retraction%20gu
• idelines.pdf
• https://publicationethics.org/
• https://www.biomedcentral.com/getpublished/editorial-policies
• https://www.biomedcentral.com/authors/biomede ditors
• http://www.icmje.org/
• http://www.wame.org/
• https://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policie
• s/b3/17c.pdf