1. Introduction

“Researchers should practice research responsibly. Unfortunately, some do not.”- Steneck (2006)

The quote cited above comes from an article published by Steneck in 2006 on the topic of research integrity. I really find this quote interesting and rather shocking because as an undergraduate students I’ve always believed that most researches I’ve come across during my studies were practiced responsibly, were reliable and therefore could be trusted.  The study done by Steneck (2006) challenges the previous assumptions about the reliability of research behaviours and some early beliefs that misconduct during research could not be widespread since it was checked by peer review and self-regulation. (Steneck, 2006)

I decided to do some research on research misconduct to find out how it affects the integrity in research and the practice of published information in the future. I will first discuss what is research integrity and will then discuss research misconduct and how it affects the practice of integrity in research.

2. Research integrity

Research integrity is defined as:

“The performance of research to the highest standards of professionalism
and rigour, in an ethically robust manner”- Hitney (2015)

Integrity defines the practice of research for both individual and institutional researchers. The practice of research has to be done in a way that the work published must be trusted among researchers and the people who will use that information as it affects people’s lives .  According to the National Research Council (US) and Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Assessing Integrity in Research Environments, individual researches and institutional researches must commit practice research in intellectual honesty and be responsible for their actions. Some of key components in research integrity include:

• Fairness in peer review
• Transparency in conflicts of interests
• Accuracy in presenting proposals or research results
• Encourage respect for everyone participating in the research

I personally agree with the practice of integrity in research and I must admit that it is not something I have thought of before. I believe that increasing focus on research integrity has the potential to increase the quality of the researches conducted and therefore making the results more practical/ useful to our society.

3. Research misconduct 

The US federal government simply defines research misconduct as:

“The fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results”

According to a study conducted by Resnik et al (2015), misconduct is a problem that undermines the integrity of research and the public support for science although it is thought to be low it may have severe adverse effects on universities, faculties and institutions. A list of types of misconduct behaviours in research has been identified by the US federal government and some these behaviours include:

• Fabrication of data
• Falsification of data
• Plagiarism
• Other serious deviations from accepted practices
• Other deception involving manipulation of data or experiments. Resknik et al (2015).

There are numerous studies that identify more of research misconduct behaviours and I find it interesting that data manipulation is part of these behaviours. I personally agree with the list and I think that although research misconduct has a low occurrence, it has an impact of the trustworthiness and the credibility of the research publisher whether it’s an individual or institutional researcher.

4. Practical application 

I think reading about these topics has challenged me to be a little bit more critical towards researches that I use to support ideas in my assignments. it also made me reflect on the concepts of trustworthiness, credibility and transparency in conducting research. I think these concepts are integral to achieving research integrity and avoiding misconduct while conducting researches.

Intellectual honestly should always be something that researches aim to achieve in order to publish papers that will impact people’s lives positively.

I have found a short video on Youtube on the discussion of these two topics. The video discusses some of the reasons why research misconduct in the scientific world could rise and some of the reasons why data manipulation is done in the scientific community. To watch the video please click here.

References 

Steneck, N. (2006). Fostering integrity in research: Definitions, current knowledge, and future directions. Science And Engineering Ethics, 12(1), 53-74. doi: 10.1007/pl00022268

Integrity in Scientific Research: Creating an Environment That Promotes Responsible Conduct : Health and Medicine Division. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2002/Integrity-in-Scientific-Research-Creating-an-Environment-That-Promotes-Responsible-Conduct.aspx

Resnik, D., Neal, T., Raymond, A., & Kissling, G. (2014). Research Misconduct Definitions Adopted by U.S. Research Institutions. Accountability In Research, 22(1), 14-21. doi: 10.1080/08989621.2014.891943

Research integrity—what it means, why it is important and how we might protect it. (2018). Retrieved from https://phys.org/news/2015-12-integritywhat-important.html