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Falsification, Fabrication, and Plagiarism�The Unholy Trinity of Scientific Writing�: Ethical Integrity Issues�

Material Collected from Different Sources

References and bibliography available on last slide

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Research

  • Research is a serious academic activity with a set of objectives to explain or analyze or understand a problem or finding solution(s) for the problem(s).
  • Example- Accident on road and investigation by police linking various aspects

Hence, research is a disciplined exercise to establish or question the link between various factors and explain the unexplained phenomenon.

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Raiyani R. Jagadish “Research Methodology- Theory and techniques” New Century Publications, New Delhi, 2012

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Social Research

  • Research should assist in understanding a problem and offering solution for the problem.
  • While solutions for individual problems cannot be found out because of heterogeneity, solutions for problems of groups of human beings could be attempted.
  • As, it is also an established fact that what is true of an individual need not be true of a society, but what is true of a society may be true and applicable to majority of individuals.
  • Hence, while formulating policies for social problems researchers always focus on group problems than individual problems.
  • Learning & Research is for social cause and not for just marks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07d2dXHYb94

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Raiyani R. Jagadish “Research Methodology- Theory and techniques” New Century Publications, New Delhi, 2012

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Purpose & Objective of Research

  • Research is a conscious approach to find out the truth which is hidden and which has not been discovered by applying scientific procedure… Objectives are like guide points in research so that the researcher does not lose his focus…objectives determine the nature of data to be compiled, the scope of collection, target group, sample size and several other crucial aspects which ultimately decide the success or failure, adequacy or inadequacy of research.

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Raiyani R. Jagadish “Research Methodology- Theory and techniques” New Century Publications, New Delhi, 2012

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Conti….

1. The research may be to understand or become familiar with some phenomena or to get to know more in-depth about it. For example- steam engine to diesel to electricity

2. To clearly reveal the characteristics of an individual or a situation or a group. For example- before a criminal is sentenced, understanding reasons for committing crime

3. To understand the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated with something else. For example- explanation for depletion of ozone in the air

4. To test a hypothesis about the causal relationship between variables being studied. For example, corruption

  • Build your own Perception “Original”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBiFSH2fgek

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Raiyani R. Jagadish “Research Methodology- Theory and techniques” New Century Publications, New Delhi, 2012

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Scientific/ Research Misconduct

  • Scientific misconduct is violation of the standard codes of the scholarly conduct and the ethical behavior in the publication of professional scientific research.
  • Research misconduct means falsification, fabrication, plagiarism and violation of authorship rules in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.

-[US Department of Health and Human Services]

  • Such misconduct may happen in every or any stage of research - data collection, data analysis, while reviewing literature, writing conclusion or suggestions.
  • It’s a serious offence as it may lead to corrupt scientific records resulting in misleading research conclusions or future research outcomes – even leading to failure of social policies & breach of public trust.

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Falsification

  • Falsification is alteration or manipulation of research processes, observed results, or adding/ subtracting or omitting data to bring desired results but not by following scientific conduct or research ethics.
  • Falsification is most common form of scientific misconduct and is very difficult to detect.
  • In a study of China 2006, 40% of the investigated misconduct were of falsification.

-[Khadem- Rizaiyan M, Dadgarmoghaddam M. Research misconduct: a report from a developing country. Iranian Journal of Public Health. 2017; 46(10):1374]

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Fabrication

  • Studies or experiments simply not performed
  • Studies artificially produced
  • It’s making of results; recording and reporting them

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Falsification- Intension is of improving the results or removing the results that do not fit the hypothesis

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Plagiarism

  • The word “plagiarism” is derived from Latin word “Plagiare” meaning kidnap. Common use of word in English language could be trace from 1600s.

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  • Copying another’s ideas, results, or words without giving proper credit.

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  • More commonly, however, one individual has performed an unoriginal study and recycled the published words of another to describe it.

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  • Plagiarism is qualitatively different from Falsification and Fabrication as it does not distort scientific knowledge but definitely hurts & mislead public trust and researcher’s fraternity. Ineligible people take positions by such acts and impacts the careers of others. �
  • What if it is just a sentence here and a paragraph there? Surely there are only a limited number of ways to express certain thoughts? Answer is , Was the text referenced, for example, did the authors use quotes?

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Why does plagiarism matter?�

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  • There’s an expected research honesty

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  • You’re taking credit for someone else’s work

But it doesn’t mean you can’t use other researchers’ ideas—building on others’ work is a key part of academic writing. But it’s important to clearly distinguish your own words and ideas from those of your sources.

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  • If you’re caught plagiarizing, there can be serious consequences:

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  • As a student, plagiarism can result in failing your course or even your degree.
  • As a professional academic, plagiarism can put your career and reputation at risk, and you could be held legally liable for copyright infringement.

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  • The severity of the consequences depend on the type of plagiarism and the context—a first-year student who makes accidental citation errors is likely to be treated more leniently than a graduate student who deliberately steals someone’s work. But in all cases, an allegation of plagiarism is stressful and damaging to your academic success.

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Why Plagiarism?

Deliberate Plagiarism

Accidental / Unwitting Plagiarism

Copying content or complete text and structure (without paraphrasing and or citation)

Copying content (but not remembering it’s original source)

Time constraints or poor time management

Considering it as common scientific knowledge

Academic/ Career pressure

Not citing properly or incorrectly citing

Publication pressure

Improper paraphrasing

Personal desire for fame or position or financial gains

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Cultural Differences- junior researcher from certain culture may feel that it is disrespectful to alter the words used by a senior researcher who is an authority in field

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Language Problem – may not paraphrase as not confident enough to retain original meaning.

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Highly technical description – feel incapable of paraphrasing

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Variants of Plagiarism

1. Copying/ Copy- & - paste plagiarism/ Direct plagiarism/ Verbatim

  • Copying and directly pasting content from a source or multiple sources without citation or giving proper credit to owner of content, claiming it as own.

a. Clone:

b. CTRL C:

c. Find- Replace:

d. Remix :

e. Mashup:

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Conti….

2. Self Plagiarism:

  • means reusing parts of your own previous work without acknowledging it

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a. Recycle/ auto-plagiarism- writes and publishes an article then repackage it and submits to a second journal without referencing the first publication.

Also common is to publish the same article in various different-language journals. Earlier it was justified but in the era of the Internet, electronic journals, and Google Translate, these barriers to accessibility simply do not exist, and the practice is unacceptable.

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Conti…

3. Improper Paraphrasing

  • Having an attributed idea worded too similarly to its original work

a. Re-tweet:

4. Incomplete or no attribution

  • Not providing full attribution or credit to the person(s) with the original idea
  • Not citing a source in the body of a paper or including it in the bibliography

a. Hybrid:

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Conti…

5. Mosaic Plagiarism

  • Mosaic plagiarism means using various phrases, passages and ideas from different sources to create a kind of “mosaic” or “patchwork” of other researchers’ work, without proper citations.

6. Global Plagiarism: Global plagiarism means submitting an entire work written by Ghost writer. That includes having a friend write your paper for you or buying an essay.

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Conti…

7. 404 Error: includes citations to non-existent or inaccurate information about sources

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8. Aggregator: includes proper citation to the source but the paper contains almost no original work

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9. Replication or Breach of Terms :It is the responsibilities of the author to ensure that they do not publish the paper, through different publications, this can invite serious intellectual property charges along with breach of terms.

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Why?

  • We challenge research misconduct but why not misleaded research

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGMYdalClU

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How to Avoid Plagiarism In Academic Writings?

  • Quotation
  • Paraphrasing
  • Referencing

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Quotation

  • To use exact phrases from previously published works- journal articles, books, news paper articles etc. directly into ones own words. Such work is done where specific information has to be provided and no changes could be entertained.
  • But be careful to quote the text exactly
  • A direct quote must be included in quotations. Use ellipses (…) to show omitted text and use brackets [ ] to show added phrases.
  • Quotes must mention the person’s name and be cited using the format specified. Formats of References- APA American Psychological Association, Harvard , Vancouver style, Chicago manual etc.

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Direct quote should always have three parts: Source, Quote, Tag

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Paraphrasing

  • Putting the authors words in your own
  • Paraphrasing is not changing or deleting couple of words in an author’s statement
  • Paraphrases must mention the person’s name and be cited using the format specified.
  • It’s not the use of synonyms
  • It comes with lot of practice. It come when you are able to comprehend, articulate and write it in your own words by understanding what you read.
  • Using your own words to bring out the essence of original work.

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Common Knowledge

  • Common knowledge don’t required citation
  • But fact must be commonly known

Not all facts are common knowledge :

  • Course specific knowledge
  • Facts that include statistics or numbers
  • Using quotes even if its content is common knowledge

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What doesn’t fall under plagiarism?

  • Original work and ideas that are not credited to anyone else
  • Using ideas from original works that are adequately paraphrased and given proper attribution

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References and Bibliography

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