Integrity describes both individual researchers and the institutions in which they work (Definition of research integrity, 2018). For individuals, it is a characteristic of moral character and experience. For institutions, it is a matter of making an environment that supports responsible conduct by embracing standards of trustworthiness, excellence and lawfulness that notify institutional practices. For the individual scientist, integrity represents above all a commitment to intellectual honesty and personal responsibility for one’s actions and to a range of practices that characterize responsible research conduct (The national academic press, 2002).
These practices include:
• Intellectual honesty in suggesting, performing, and reporting research;
• Accuracy in representing contributions to study suggestions and reports;
• Fairness in peer review;
• Collegiality in scientific interactions, including communications and sharing of resources;
• Transparency in conflicts of interest or potential conflicts of interest;
• Protection of human subjects in the conduct of research; and
• Adherence to the joint responsibilities between investigators and their research teams.

Intellectual honesty in proposing, performing, and reporting research refers to honesty with respect to the meaning of one’s research. It is expected that researchers present proposals and data truthfully and communicate their best understanding of the work verbally and in writing. The descriptions of an individual’s work found in such communications frequently present
selected data from the work systematized into frameworks that stress the conceptual understanding rather than the chronology of the discovery process (The national academic press, 2002). Clear and precise research records must underlie these descriptions, however.
Researchers must be advocates for their research conclusions in the face of collegial skepticism and must admit errors. An example of this is when researchers make mistakes and have to withdraw information after it has been published. However, what if we as physiotherapists have been using those research as reference for treatment methods? The patients then suffer the consequence because the treatment received is not viable and based on incomplete or incorrect data.

Precision in representing one’s contributions to research proposals and reports necessitates the task of credit. It is anticipated that researchers won’t report the work of others as if it were their own. This is plagiarism. Moreover, they should be truthful with respect to the contributions of colleagues and collaborators. Choices regarding authorship are best predicted at the outset of projects rather than at their completion (The national academic press, 2002). In publications, it should be possible in value to specify each author’s contribution to the work. It also is expected that researchers truthfully acknowledge the precedents on which their research is based.

It is expected that researchers present proposals and data honestly and communicate their best understanding of the work verbally and in writing this is expected even now at a fourth year level at university where the author of the work we are using is being acknowledged. Hence, why we reference the work that was taken from someone else. In my experience I found this to be quite challenging as at times as I tend to wait on the last minute to start with an assignment,
thus rushing to complete work and end up looking for a few synonyms to avoid quoting the author this is a reflection of lacking research integrity as it is nearly stating the authors work as is and not presenting and communicating the authors research honestly. In addition, in clinical practice we have to do research on respective treatments that is proven to be effective before
treating our patients and in this case research integrity is to acknowledge the author that we got the information from and not present it as our own work.

References

Definition of research integrity. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.bath.ac.uk/corporate information/definition-of-research-integrity/

The National Academies Press. (2002). Integrity in scientific research. Washington, D.C.