An International Study of Research Misconduct Policies

Abstract

Research misconduct is an international concern. Misconduct policies can play a crucial role in preventing and policing research misconduct, and many institutions have developed their own policies. While institutional policies play a key role in preventing and policing misconduct, national policies are also important to ensure consistent promulgation and enforcement of ethical standards. The purpose of this study was to obtain more information about research misconduct policies across the globe. We found that twenty-two of the top forty research and development funding countries (55%) had a national misconduct policy. Four countries (18.2%) are in the process of developing a policy, and four (18.2%) have a national research ethics code but no misconduct policy. All twenty-two countries (100%) with national policies included fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism in the definition of misconduct, but beyond that there was considerable diversity. Unethical authorship was mentioned in 54.6% of the misconduct definitions, followed by unethical publication practices (36.4%), conflict of interest mismanagement (36.4%), unethical peer review (31.8%), misconduct related to misconduct investigations (27.3%), poor record keeping (27.3%), other deception (27.3%), serious deviations (22.7%), violating confidentiality (22.7%), and human or animal research violations (22.7%). Having a national policy was positively associated with research and development funding ranking and intensiveness. To promote integrity in international research collaborations, countries should seek to harmonize and clarify misconduct definitions and develop procedures for adjudicating conflicts when harmonization does not occur.

Keywords:

• definitions
• ethics
• international variation
• policies
• research misconduct

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article is the work product of an employee or group of employees of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH). It does not represent the views of the NIEHS, NIH, or U.S. government. We would like to thank the following individuals who helped us obtain information about national research misconduct policies: Ghiath Alahmad, Mukhtar Alam, Kiarash Aramesh, Behrooz Astaneh, J. Kevin Baird, Elizabeth Anne Bukusi, Martine Bungener, Alastair V. Campbell, Benjamin James Capps, Rui Mota Cardoso, Manuel João Costa, Stefan Eriksson, Nicole Föger, Joanna Stjernschantz Forsberg, Zelina Ben-Gershon, Andrzej Gorski, Michelle Hadchouel, Lyn Horn, Paul Van Houtte, Kirsten Hüttemann, Po Keung Ip, Aamir Jafarey, Ragnvald Kalleberg, Vedran Katavic, Jongyoug Kim, Francis Kombe, Eng Hin Lee, Elissa Lim, Peter Loke, Calvin Ho Wai Loon, Consantino Marco, Ana Marusic, Domenico Franco Merlo, Eisuke Nakazawa, Lisbeth Nielsen, Siok Ming Ong, Sun Ping, Joana Inês Pontes, Pere Puigdomenech, Hans J. Radder, Mati Rahu, Theresa Rossouw, Andrés J. Roussos, Suresh Sachi, Eman Sadoun, Saeid Safari, Ayman Shabana, Carmel Shalev, Martha Sorenson, Nicholas Steneck, Louis Tiefenauer, Rosemarie Tong, Daniel Fu-Chang Tsai, Alp Usubutun, Ibo van de Poel, Stefanie van der Burght, Vasiliy V. Vlassov, Chan Tuck Wai, Fitria Wulandari, Altug Yalcintas, Zinatul Zainol, and Weiqin Zeng.