Introduction
This guide, alongside our short guide to misconduct investigations, will support you in reporting suspected research misconduct and questionable research practices (QRPs) to institutions, publishers, and elsewhere, and to let you know what to expect from the process.
This UK resource document provides guidance on the reporting of suspected questionable research practices. Even though it is written specifically for the UK research environment, it should be regarded as a useful template for guidance material for other jurisdictions. Individual researchers should consider themselves to have the responsibility of reporting questionable research practices if they suspect they have occurred.
- Using other people’s ideas, intellectual property, or work without their permission and/or acknowledging their input (plagiarism);
- Breaching legal, ethical and professional requirements needed for research, for example those needed for human research participants, animals, or human organs or tissue used in research, or for the protection of the environment. An example of this includes proceeding with research without ethical approval or not obtaining informed consent;
- Proceeding with research without necessary permissions and approvals in place;
- Making up data or results, or other aspect of the research such as patient consent (fabrication);
- Manipulating and/or selecting research processes, materials, equipment, data etc. to present a false impression or outcome (falsification);
- Misrepresenting data or other information; and
- Failing to declare or appropriately manage conflicts of interest.
