Current Status of Research Misconduct: Causes, Consequences and Prevention Procedures

Abstract

Research misconduct is a serious incident in research. It is an unethical action in research. Here, researchers intentionally fabricate, falsify, and plagiarise data to support their research findings. Research misconduct reduces research integrity, standards, objectivity, transparency and credibility. The objectives of this review study are to discuss the concept of research misconduct, followed by discussing the reasons, consequences and prevention of research misconduct. This study also aims to study the current status of scientific or research misconduct. This study used various articles, journals, papers, and different guidelines such as COPE, WAME, ICMJE, etc. This investigation also examined different previous research works to discover the current status of research misconduct. The findings of this study explored the kinds of causes of research misconduct, such as lack of training, lack of awareness, pressure of publications, personal intention, etc. This investigation also found different outcomes, like it decreases academic reputation, it can damage carriers, it contributes to the loss of credibility of research work. Furthermore, it discovers that research misconduct is a common problem throughout the globe, including in India. This study shows the increasing rate of research misconduct from nineties (90s) to existing era. Most of the Indian or international studies mentioned plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, and personal intention as the reasons for misconduct in research work. This study will be helpful for the new academicians to gain a clear insight into research misconduct, its various causes, consequences, and prevention. This study also helps to do further research work after understanding the status of misconduct in research.

Keywords: Current status of research misconduct, Fabrication, Falsification, Plagiarism, Research misconduct.