Integrity in research can be defined as conducting research in a manner which allows others to have trust and confidence in your methods, your findings and any publications based on your research (University of Leicester, 2018). Research integrity encompasses the use of honest and verifiable methods in proposing, performing, and evaluating research; reporting research results with particular attention to adherence to rules, regulations and guidelines and following commonly accepted professional codes or norms (NIH, 2013). As a student, referencing becomes a part of daily life as we learn from our first year of studies that reading the publications of others is the only way to form the initial building bricks we need for our future careers. However, many of us flow through our degree scanning through authors work, and putting their name at the end of a sentence we do not quite understand, and are not quite sure of how much it is of what we wrote that the authors should be credited for. it is only in the student’s final year, in preparation of their own thesis, do they realise the grueling days, tiresome hours, and seemingly never ending minutes of ones life that goes into producing a piece of research you can be proud to put your name on. It is no wonder that universities, such as the University of Bath, pride themselves on “honesty, rigour, transparency and the care and respect of all participants” in their conduction of research (University of Bath, 2018). The understanding that research of others needs to be highly respected and their work identified can only come from simulated experience. Research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results (Leuven, 2018). To quote Sherrilyn Kenyon: “you can’t buy time, it’s the only thing in life you can’t buy more of, and it’s the only thing in life that will mercilessly tear you up when it’s gone”. This is one of the many reasons such a strong stand has been taken against students participating in research misconduct. While we are studying, to show no integrity in research is to take away from the time sacrificed by the author. Integrity is further enforced on the student to not ony develop an understanding of the sacrifice of time, but because once the student begins to release their own research through publications, there are elements that need to be taken into account such as: undermining the knowledge base of the discipline means that future research may be flawed because it is based on lack of rigour, undermining government support for research, both in terms of relying on the findings of research and funding new research, and a decline in the support of innovative research (DMU, 2018).
References
DeMontfort University. (2018). Why is Research Integrity Important? Retrieved August 16, 2018, from http://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/ethics-and-governance/why-is-research-integrity-and-ethics-important.aspx
Leuven, K. U. (2018). Definition of Research Misconduct. Retrieved August 16, 2018, from https://www.kuleuven.be/english/research/integrity
National Institutes of Health. (2013). Research Integrity. Retrieved August 16, 2018, from https://grants.nih.gov/grants/research_integrity/whatis.htm
University of Bath. (2018). Definition of Research Integrity. Retrieved August 16, 2018, from https://www.bath.ac.uk/corporate-information/definition-of-research-integrity/
University of Leicester. (2018). Integrity in Research. Retrieved August 16, 2018, from https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/researchsupport/integrity