Song Chen

Shabnam Mardani

Minh Thao Nguyen

Man Song

Da Zhang

2015-09-10

Research Misconduct

CONTENT

• Introduction

Definition and scope

• Typical forms

Fabrication, falsification and plagiarism

• Countermeasures

Prevention and sanction

• Summary

CONTENT

• Introduction

Definition and scope

• Typical forms

Fabrication, falsification and plagiarism

• Countermeasures

Prevention and sanction

• Summary

4

Introduction

• The occurrence of research misconduct undermines confidence in published scientific results.

• For researches upon misconduct, people could suffer harm as a result.

• Negative consequences on the academic merit system.• In the US, 1994-2006, the Office of Research Integrity

received a total of 3571 report , only 165 of those cases is defined as fabrication, falsification.

5

Questions of definition and scope

Definition• Narrow sense: Research misconduct refers to

obvious violation.• Wider sense: it includes other forms of

reprehensible behavior.

Scope• The choice between wide and narrow definitions

is not only a matter of linguistic usage but also has consequences.

CONTENT

• Introduction

Definition and scope

• Typical forms

Fabrication, falsification and plagiarism

• Countermeasures

Prevention and sanction

• Summary

7

Fabrication and Falsification

• Fabrication is making up results and recording or reporting them. This is sometimes referred to as "drylabbing". –Make research out of nothing.

• Falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.

8

Features

Intention Intentionally manipulate, unintentionally mispresent

Ease of fabrication and falsification In many scientific fields, results are often difficult to reproduce accurately, being obscured by noise, artifacts, and other extraneous data.

Difficult to determine and prevent

9

Plagiarism

Definition: Plagiarism in research entails a researcher using material (texts,

ideas, hypotheses, designs, methods, data, results or conclusions) –

consciously or through carelessness – in such a way that it presents a

misleading picture of the researcher’s contribution to the project at hand

Avoiding plagiarism: Credit the author and supply the printed source.

Exception: Widly known knowledge.

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Unpublished material and self-plagiarism

Lectures given at large conference can be regarded as published.

Presentation or lectures from small conferences, seminars are often considered as unpublished.

Refer to your earlier results: state that the text has appeared in an ealier context.

CONTENT

• Introduction

Definition and scope

• Typical forms

Fabrication, falsification and plagiarism

• Countermeasures

Prevention and sanction

• Summary

12

How to PREVENT misconduct

High competition, high risk of misdonduct

• to ensure that the ethical awareness among researchers there is kept at a high level

• investigating suspicions of misconduct

university’s vice-chancellor resposibility:

following and discussing cases of misconduct that are revealed nationally or internationally at research environment

• A researcher who might be tempted to plagiarize or cheat in some other way can return to the right path if he or she knows that the risk of being discovered is great

Recurring discussions and information at a department

Active work with seminars at a department

• Colleagues: Non-related publication• Faculty opponents: thesis• Reviewers: journals

Cheating is revealed by chance:

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SANCTIONS for misconduct

1. Going public with established cases of misconduct

2. The established misconduct be followed by sanctions

3. Sanctions must naturally be proportionate to the nature of the

misconduct:• a change in the offender’s job description, transfer or even

termination• barring the offender from the use of laboratories for a time• freezing funding• removal from positions of trust

4. Repeated or more comprehensive research misconduct is more

serious than a single case concerning only one detail5. Background check for new funding

CONTENT

• Introduction

Definition and scope

• Typical forms

Fabrication, falsification and plagiarism

• Countermeasure

Prevention and sanction

• Summary

15

Conclusions

• Definition, scope and jeopardy of research misconduct

Huge negative impact on academic evaluation and tremendous harm to

integrity of the research activity

• Typical scenarios and their features

Fabrication and falsification couldn’t be discerned readily

• Countermeasures

1. Sturdy prevention mechanism is effective but not enough

2. Necessity of sanctions

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What is done by night appears by day, so