Research ethics

Mathematicians – and, indeed, other scholars – who cooperate with intelligence agencies face a moral dilemma knowing that their research could well be applied in unethical ways, says Michael Harris

Senior MP says Sam Gyimah's failure to answer questions about research integrity may lead scholars to conclude area is 'not a ministerial priority'

Australian academic accused of copying statements from Wikipedia and other journal articles without attribution in court

Survey finds that most research organisations do not have a policy on use of metrics

New injection of cash for San Francisco Declaration on responsible metrics hopes to move initiative from words to action

The broad trends in AI may be unstoppable, but we must find better ways of directing and regulating them, argues Toronto’s Mark Kingwell

Technology behind Bitcoin is not just hype, say advocates, but could prevent data tampering and improve reproducibility

University of Paris-Saclay will incorporate ethical considerations into research on emerging technologies 

Junior researchers also more likely to feel they have to give credit to colleagues who made minimal contributions

Southern Illinois University under investigation for medical school researcher’s involvement with controversial herpes vaccine trial

Two-thirds of researchers have been slighted by seniors on authorship issues, THE poll reveals

Six out of 10 among 278 anonymous respondents admit to at least one incident of misconduct

Advancing capabilities of stem cells could mean researchers run into legal difficulties once more, European academies warn

UK researcher who travelled to predatory conference in Denmark calls for greater awareness of problem

Why do smart scholars fall for dodgy conferences, asks Jack Grove

New metric measures how reliable scientific claims turn out to be – but calculating it could be an enormous task

Omissions make it harder to find data, report says

Investigative journalist Emilia Sercan defied threats to uncover high-level ring of fraudulent PhDs

Scholar returning to homeland from US to lead university speaks of his concerns

Analysis reveals extent of reward system for international publications, which could be distorting scientific incentives

Top academic claims universities have created 'factories' for junk science papers because of misguided funding system

Task force established by government to explore UK open-data landscape calls for greater efforts to ensure data quality 

Academics investigating militarism and war must explore their own assumptions as well as those of their societies, event hears

Academics and journal editors call for creation of national registries of research integrity officers

Government taking reports ‘extremely seriously’ and seeking ‘additional briefing’

Changing academic environment prompts rethink of globally influential employment support guidelines 

Conference hears conflicting views on how to stamp out fraud in research

Stephan Lewandowsky warns that academics can ‘lose control’ of their data and see it used as ‘political propaganda’

South African minister says many collaborations amount to little more than ‘visits’

Despite all that’s been done to improve doctoral study, horror stories keep coming. Here three students relate PhD nightmares while two academics advise on how to ensure a successful supervision

Study outlines how publishers’ guidelines led to adoption of positive research practices

Objections to co-authorship with juniors display a misguided sense of ethics, say Mark Hayter and Roger Watson

Taylor and Francis move to replace editor and withdraw his paper threatens ‘scientific integrity’, critics claim

Government announces new centre in the wake of scandal at National Taiwan University

Code of conduct frames non-publication of unexpected results as an issue of research integrity

Interviewing a Mafia researcher made John Elmes consider how scholars should study volatile groups

New document sets 'benchmark' for others to follow, according to research policy expert

Author of new research says journals are ‘not doing’ enough to combat the phenomenon

Jeffrey Beall’s blacklist of predatory publishers has disappeared, and so too should ideas about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ journals, argues Martin Parker

Holly Else explores the emotional, reputational and practical barriers to correcting mistakes

James McCrostie was shocked to discover the extent of ‘predatory conferences’, but even more shocked by those abetting them

New analysis reveals importance of old university networks for advancement

David Latchman’s work to be subject of new inquiry after he was cleared in 2015

Anonymous interviews explore how scholars use gossip to warn others of wrongdoers – but it may not always work

Infamous cases of misconduct such as that of Paolo Macchiarini are just the extremes on a long spectrum of dubious research practices, say Nick Butler, Helen Delaney and Sverre Spoelstra

There is no simple answer to the ethical dilemmas, political manoeuvrings and relationship challenges involved in gaining access to organisations for research, says Ann Cunliffe

If lab misconduct is linked to personality traits, there is a case for assessing these when hiring scientists, say researchers

Antonio Melechi examines how enhanced interrogation techniques came to be introduced at War on Terror ‘black sites’

New research also finds that the statistical power of studies in social and behavioural science has not improved in half a century

Environmental organisation praises UK sector for climate efforts but calls for universities to do more

Jeremy Berg warns scientists are straying into policy commentator roles

Debate about research on animals fails to tackle all the issues, says Gail Davies

The Home Office has also released data showing experiments on animals across the country have broadly flatlined since 2013

Academia is no stranger to plagiarism controversies – but US politics is. Mark Ridolfo assesses the case of Melania Trump and Michelle Obama 

A survey suggests research misconduct in the UK is higher than previously feared. Joanna Williams and five other academics ponder the results

Dutch push to tackle fraud and ‘reproducibility crisis’ follows high-profile misconduct cases in the country

Pressure to publish can lead to unethical behaviour, writes Athene Donald

Research Integrity and Peer Review will look at every stage of the scientific process, and could even change its own review system depending on what it finds

Scientific misconduct increasingly studied as example of ‘occupational crime’, researcher says

Interviewees on dating app who wanted to be ‘used for academic purposes’ highlight the difficulties of using new technology for research