Treatment of Research Misconduct [Adopted from: Wright State University, “Ethical Standards in the Conduct of Research,” (1993), Northwestern University, “Policies & Guidelines in Scientific Research,” (2005), and University of California at Berkeley, “Research Misconduct: Policies, Definitions and Procedures.” (2005)]
Research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or other practices which seriously deviate from commonly accepted norms of conduct within a community of scholars for proposing, conducting, reviewing, or reporting research or other scholarly activity. Research misconduct is distinguished from honest error or differences in interpretation or judgments. For the purpose of the Manual, misconduct also includes retaliation of any kind against a person who reported or provided information about a suspected or alleged misconduct and who has not acted in bad faith.
Research misconduct includes, but is not limited to the following:
- Falsification or misrepresentation of data such as: (a) reporting experiments, measurements, or statistical analyses never performed;
(b) manipulating or altering data or other manifestations of the research to achieve desired result;
(c) falsifying or misrepresenting background information, including biographical data, citation of publications, or status of manuscripts;
(d) selective reporting, including deliberate suppression of conflicting or unwanted data.
- Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.
- Abuse of confidentiality, including use of ideas and preliminary data gained from:(a) access to privileged information through the opportunity for editorial review of manuscripts submitted to journals, and
(b) the opportunity for peer review of proposals being considered for approval or for funding support.
The requirements for determining the commission of a research misconduct are:
(a) There is a significant departure from accepted practices of the relevant research community;
(b) The misconduct is committed intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly; and
(c) The allegation is proven by a preponderance of the evidence.
All members of the FU community should promote and foster a research environment that discourages misconduct in all research activities. Likewise, members of the academic community are responsible for reporting what they believe to be misconduct on the part of research personnel. The identity of confidential sources will be protected to the extent that is consistent with the needs of an inquiry or investigation. Individuals who provide information in good faith about questionable misconduct will be protected against reprisals.
- The procedure for the initiation of an inquiry or investigation of a research misconduct committed by an FU faculty member or personnel is found in Appendix A.
