Session Duration: 1 hour
Format: Interactive discussion, institutional gap identification
While ethics focuses on how research affects others, integrity focuses on how researchers conduct themselves and their work. This unit promotes a culture of honesty, transparency, and professionalism in research institutions. The following principles help to ensure research integrity:
a. Honesty in Data Collection, Reporting, and Authorship: Research must be truthful from start to finish. This includes how data is gathered, analyzed, interpreted, and presented. Fabricating (making up) or falsifying (altering) data are serious violations that can invalidate entire projects and damage public trust. Plagiarism, using someone else’s work without proper acknowledgment, is another breach of integrity. Authorship must reflect real contributions, and all cited works must be properly referenced. Researchers and institutions must also be cautious not to suppress negative results or selectively report only favourable outcomes.
b. Scrupulous Care and Excellence in Research Practice: Conducting research with excellence involves choosing appropriate methods, following established protocols, and rigorously analyzing results. Carelessness, such as using uncalibrated equipment or neglecting to test for bias can lead to invalid conclusions, even when no misconduct is intended. Research funding councils must encourage thorough proposal development, peer review, and training in scientific methods. Ethical research is not just about good intentions, it’s about precision and professionalism.
c. Transparency and Open Communication: Researchers must be open about how their data was collected, whether data is being reused, and what limitations exist in the research. They must also disclose their funding sources and any potential biases that could influence the results. Making findings accessible through publications, data repositories, or community presentations is a part of responsible research. Where possible, even negative results should be shared to support cumulative knowledge and prevent duplication of efforts.
d. Respect for All Research Participants and Subjects: Respect in research means safeguarding the dignity and welfare of everyone and everything involved humans, animals, communities, cultures, and the environment. It also includes responsible stewardship of research for future generations. For human subjects, this includes listening to feedback, providing support if harm occurs, and honouring their contribution even after participation ends. Researchers must avoid exploitation and promote fairness, especially in collaborations between high- and low-resource settings.
Facilitator Notes
a) Discuss responsible authorship, data management, and peer review.
b) Use Singapore Statement principles for discussion.
c) Encourage participants to draft integrity policies.
Suggestions for Further Reading
a) National Academies (2017). Fostering Integrity in Research.
b) Singapore Statement (2010). Principles of Research Integrity.