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Research Misconduct

Protect your work's integrity.

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Recognizing & preventing Research Misconduct

Research Misconduct represents a serious breach of ethical standards within the scientific community, undermining the integrity and reliability of scholarly work. It encompasses actions such as fabrication (making up data), falsification (manipulating data), and plagiarism (appropriating others' work without proper attribution). These violations erode public trust in research, can have significant consequences for individuals and institutions, and hinder the advancement of knowledge. Therefore, understanding and addressing research misconduct is crucial for maintaining the credibility and trustworthiness of scientific endeavors.

 

Research Misconduct Policy

Commonly asked questions

The integrity of the research record, including creative works, is the foundation for society’s trust in academia and of researchers’ trust on work that they rely upon for their own work. Without that trust, research funding will diminish – along with research jobs – and perceptions of research quality will decline.

The policy provides a federally-compliant way to handle allegations of RM that aims to be fair to all sides.

Plagiarism: taking others' ideas, words, or data and presenting them as your own or without acknowledging the source.

Falsification: altering data, such as Western blots or data point outliers; omitting results to improve study conclusions. 

Fabrication: making up data or results.

Contact UM’s Executive Director for Research Integrity and Compliance or the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development – by any method.

Several policy clauses protect the person alleging RM, such as confidentiality and proscription against retaliation – with mandatory actions. There are similar protections for the respondent.

Do not respond. Instead, report it directly to the Executive Director for Research Integrity and Compliance. Keep the allegation confidential in order to protect yourself.

UM receives 1-2 RM allegations each year. Most are resolved at the allegation assessment stage (i.e., they do not proceed to formal committee reviews). Allegation assessments are similar to a district attorney marshalling evidence to determine if a case is sufficient to move forward.

Most allegations are plagiarism. Many allegations come from graduate students who are insufficiently trained in laboratory culture, who owns lab data, etc.