IMPORTANCE OF PUBLICATION ETHICS IN RESEARCH

IMPORTANCE OF PUBLICATION ETHICS IN RESEARCH

Gautam Sarmah

Publication ethics are rules of conduct generally agreed upon when publishing results of scientific research or other scholarly work.

Generally it is a standard that protects intellectual property and forbids the re-publication of another’s work without proper credit. It also forbids the use of plagiarism of another’s efforts. Data and information published as original must, in fact, be original.

Research in any discipline of thought is an ongoing process of enhancing the existing base of knowledge by exploring new frontiers that challenge the human quest for understanding reality in more different ways.

The question of maintaining the quality of research education has become the central agenda among the academic, professional, and higher education policy makers not only in India but as well as all over the world.

Researchers, publishers, research administrators, and other stakeholders in the research ecosystem are equally responsible in managing research and publication ethics. It is important to conduct quality research with utmost integrity and focus on publishing the outcomes in high-quality journals’.

Academic research towards publication involves many coordinated steps and processes: identifying appropriate study design, study execution, collection of data, analysis of data, and finally publication. While going through these steps and culminating in a publication can be an exhilarating experience, one should be aware of the ethical code of conduct that binds researchers at every stage.

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is an international forum for editors and publishers of peer-reviewed journals that provide the “code of conduct” and “best practice guidelines” that define publication ethics and also provide guidelines on good publication practices to the editors on how to handle cases related to research and publication misconduct.

In India, The University Grants Commission (henceforth, UGC) published Guidance Document on Good Academic Research Practices (GARP) in the year 2020 (September) that provides a general framework for enhancing research integrity by focusing on potential threats and good practice at each and every stage in the research cycle.

It covers various issues like research integrity, conducting research, dissemination of research output by selection of the right journal for publication and Institutional wise research programme management. These guidelines should be equally useful for authors, editorial board members, readers, owners of journals, and publishers beside editors.

In the past, the research was supposed to be the integral part of institutions, doing only the research. But nowadays, the research is more formal and has become an integral part of both the academic institutions imparting higher education and institutions carrying on purely research as well. Research work is always published in the form of an article in a journal, article in conference proceedings, or in the form of a book.

In publication of research work, there is involvement of four parties; author (researcher), editor, peer reviewers, and publisher. It becomes essential for all the four parties to follow the publication ethics standards to ensure the high quality of scientific publications, credibility of scientific findings, and ensure the credit to its authors.

Because there is a huge pressure on the researchers to publish the scientific findings as an indispensable part of obtaining their academic degrees, and the career pressures on the researchers, sometimes unethical behaviour of all four parties author, editor, peer reviewer, and publisher has been unfortunate.

Before we start with the details of the importances of publication ethics, one must know why the publication of research work is so important. There are some certain causes to the need for publication of research.

First of all, Publishing the research findings promotes academic and hence career progression.

Secondly Publication the research gaps and hence potential areas of research can be found.

Thirdly, Research findings identifies Publication of research findings helps in publicity of the authors among the other peer group researchers, funding agencies, and other common people and finally, increases responsibility to influence the practice.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN PUBLICATION FOR RESEARCH

There are many issues in ethical publication for research, we are going to explain these ethical issues of publication in the below :

1. Ethics Review or Breach of Confidentiality : Breach of confidentiality is a big ethical issue in publications. While doing the research, researchers must take the informed consent from the owners.

For example, an institutional permission is required if data of the institution is being used for research analysis. If conducting research on animal or human participants, an informed consent must form a human/animal ethical committee as per national guidelines. If trials are being done then these trials must be registered with Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI).

2. Fabrication and Falsification : Fabrication and Falsification The meaning of fabrication is making up something which does not even exist. So, making of the research findings which are not resulted from any study then we call it fabrication while Falsification means alteration of something available. So, if data has been generated by manipulation of some existing data is known as falsification. Falsification and fabrication misconducts.

The data used in study must be preserved for a long duration (say for 5 years). In case your research comes under any scrutiny for any reason, one can defend as the data has been preserved.

3. Authorship : Authorship confers credit for the research work that has been carried out to result into a publication. Authorship implies the responsibility and accountability of the research work done. There are academic, social, and financial implications of the authorship.

If there are more than one authors, all the listed authors must have a significant contribution to the research. There are some criteria for authorship for each journal, so reading the guidelines of authorship is must, before submitting the article for publication.

4. Plagiarism : Most common issue faced by all the publications is plagiarism. Plagiarism is the use of previously published research works by someone. Unreferenced use of other’s published work without his consent or acknowledgement is known comes under plagiarism. Plagiarism is also a very serious publication misconduct which should be avoided. Plagiarism may be self- plagiarism, direct plagiarism, or redundant publication.

5. Ethics Related to Submission : Ethics Related to Submission There are issues related to submission of research works such as simultaneous submissions, duplicate publication, selt-citation, or predatory journal.

The Simultaneous Submissions is submitting the research works in different places at the same time. Simultaneous submission should not be done as it wastes the time of editor, reviewers and publishers.

Secondly, submitting a manuscript with the same hypothesis, methods, results etc is known as duplicate publishing. Duplication publishing is illegal.

Thirdly, referencing the self written manuscript in your own research article is known as self- citation. Self-citation is also not allowed in publication. Finally, the predatory publication works are related with Journal publications. A predatory journal is a publication which charges the authors a hefty amount of fee for their research findings published online.

Predatory journals are generally non- reviewed poorly maintained journals which should be avoided for publication.

There are some important points of ethics for publication of research work from both author and publisher sides. As a author we need to follow these publication ethics :

1. Research should be conceived based on originality and innovation and not be based on plagiarized ideas of some other fellow researcher.

2. Accuracy should be maintained in representing contributions to research proposals.

3. Researchers need to protect the identity of the respondent.

4. Due acknowledgement of web based resources is an ethical practice.

5. The researcher must be aware of the issues arising out of Plagiarism and their consequences.

6. Cite all related papers, including those submitted but not yet accepted.

7. Always provide full disclosure about any previous submissions that might be regarded as duplicate publication.

8. Be clear in submitting a manuscript what new information it contains.

9. At time of submission, authors should disclose details of related papers, even if in a different language, and similar papers in press.

10. Avoid guest, ghost and gift authorship.

11. Adopt the best practices recommended by COPE based on three parameters : Submit, Encourage and Behaviour.

12. Researchers must keep detailed records of research activities, such as research design and data collection, and all correspondence with agencies like ICSSR, IMPRESS etc.

13. It is the author’s responsibility to respect intellectual property while adopting.

14. Authors should disclose any conflict of interest (personal or financial) that may affect research.

15. It is mandatory for authors to be honest and objective when complying with journal submission requirements.

16. All communication between authors and the journal is to be treated as confidential.

17. A work which is submitted and accepted for publication should not generally be announced to the public before its formal appearance.

18. Reproduction of an article already published using identical sample and outcomes.

19. Multiple submissions of the same manuscript are unethical.

     On the other hand, from the publisher side or as a publisher we also need to follow some principles in our research work.

1. Editors and Peer Reviewers should adhere to the ethical practices (COPE or WAME) while discharging their duties.

2. Any conflict of interest in review should be reported to the editor.

3. Reviewers should treat all information in the article as confidential.

4. Confidentiality of the review process in single- or double-blind systems has to be maintained.

5. Publishers, editors and reviewers of all scholarly publications have to be vigilant to avoid any possible unethical misconduct on their part or on part of authors.

6. Journals can request that authors to provide a short description of each author’s contribution in an Acknowledgement,

7. The Copyright Transfer Agreements and Exclusive Licence Agreements must be provided clearly.

8. Journals should require that, prior to submitting their article; all authors agree to the order in which their names will be listed in their manuscript.

9. Publication of research output is a societal responsibility and, therefore, should not be taken as a commercial purpose.

10. Publishing of ‘predatory’ or bogus journals, which would rapidly publish ‘anything’ on payment but without peer-review, is avoided.

From the above discussions, we have found that There are various forms of unethical practices that authors resort to, sometimes intentionally and occasionally by accident. Being aware of publication ethics enlisted herein will help readers to consciously avoid such misconduct and perform honest ethical research and pursue publications.

Bibliography

1. Bos, J., Research Ethics for Students in the Social Sciences, Springer, New York, 2020

2. Chowdhary, N., Hussain, S., Handbook of Research and Publication Ethics, Bharati Publication, New Delhi, 2021

3. Datta, D., Good Practices and Ethics in Research and Publication, Ane Books pvt ltd., New Delhi, 2021

4. Dutta, S., Research and Publication Ethics in Social Science, Bharati Publication, New Delhi, 2021

5. Goyal V., Batra, G.S., Research and Publication Ethics, D.P.S. Publishing House, New Delhi, 2021

6. Poduval, P.R., Empirical Research in Social Science, Notion Press, 2015

7. Tucker, V., Research Methods in Social Sciences, Pearson, Delhi, 2019

8. Yadav, S.K., Research and Publication Ethics, Ane Books pvt ltd., New Delhi, 2020

(About Author : Ph.D. Scholar, Dibrugarh University & Faculty Member of History, Rabindranath Tagore University)

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