Drawing on findings from The Responsible Knowledge Exchange, Engagement and Impact (2021-23) project, Alis Oancea, Aileen Marshall-Brown and Juliet Scott-Barrett outline six factors to consider when designing policies and practices to promote responsib…
Category: Research Ethics
Who should take responsibility for integrity in research?
Reflecting on comparisons with the US and the results of the recent International Research Integrity Survey (IRIS), George Gaskell, Nick Allum, Miriam Bidoglia and Abigail-Kate Reid argue that robust research integrity cultures depend on support from d…
AI paper mills and image generation require a co-ordinated response from academic publishers
The role of AI in the production of research papers is rapidly moving from being a futuristic vision, towards an everyday reality; a situation with significant consequences for research integrity and the detection of fraudulent research. Rebecca Lawren…
Just how important is the problem of predatory publishing?
The phenomenon of predatory publishing is well known following the work of Jeffrey Beall and others in highlighting and popularising the issue. In a new book titled The Predator Effect, Simon Linacre draws on his experience in tackling deceptive publis…
Is it ethical to be friends with research participants?
In qualitative research building a rapport and friendships with participants is often presented as a means to gain access and data from research participants. However, as Helen Kara discusses, using friendship in an instrumental way presents serious et…
Doing research as if participants mattered
Almost all qualitative and quantitative research into human society involves the participation of other humans. However, they are frequently rendered passively in research outputs as ‘research subjects’. In this post, Helen Kara, argues that the way we…
Book Review: Underdogs: Social Deviance and Queer Theory by Heather Love
In Underdogs: Social Deviance and Queer Theory, Heather Love explores how queer theory was shaped by the Cold War-era world of deviance research. Presenting a careful, close reading of deviance studies, this book invites queer theorists to reconsider t…
Can standardised courses in research ethics prevent publication misconduct?
The Indian University Grants Commission (UGC) has introduced a number of policies aimed at addressing issues around the robustness and quality of Indian research. One focus of these policies has been the introduction of mandatory publishing ethics trai…
A self-correcting fallacy – Why don’t researchers correct their own errors in the scientific record?
Correcting mistakes in light of new data and updating findings to reflect this is often considered to be a key characteristic of scientific research. Commenting on the ‘Loss-of-Confidence Project’, a study into self-correction amongst psychologists, Ju…
What ethical responsibilities do social media researchers have to report harmful or illegal content?
For researchers working on social media communities, especially in sensitive subject areas, there is a strong likelihood they will have encountered harmful or illegal content. In this post, Dr Liam McLoughlin discusses the ethical responsibilities rese…