Researchers should report their findings honestly and accurately, resisting any temptation to alter or fabricate data that contradicts their hypotheses. Unexpected results are scientifically valuable because they reveal the actual nature of the phenomenon being studied, and they are often just as interesting, or even more informative, than the anticipated outcomes.

Value of Unexpected Results

What specifically constitutes data falsification in a research study?

Data falsification, also known as altering results, is a violation of scholarly integrity that occurs when a researcher manipulates, omits, or changes real data. Because the scientific goal is to understand the world as it actually is, researchers have a duty to report their findings honestly and accurately. Therefore, they must never alter their results in any way, even if the actual data contradicts their expectations.

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Researchers must maintain their integrity through the publication process and beyond. Because the scientific goal is to learn about the way the world actually is, researchers have a duty to report their results honestly and accurately. The APA Ethics Code outlines these obligations, which encompass strict prohibitions against data fabrication and plagiarism, as well as the accurate assignment of authorship credit.

Scholarly Integrity

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KPU Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition

Duplicate data publication is a breach of scholarly integrity where researchers publish the same dataset a second time, presenting it as though it were new, original research. This practice is unethical because it distorts the scientific literature and misleadingly amplifies the impact of a single set of findings.

Duplicate Data Publication

As a principle of scholarly integrity, researchers are ethically expected to share their data with other professionals. Making data available allows other researchers to verify the findings and promotes transparency and collaboration within the scientific community.

Data Sharing in Research

An important aspect of scholarly integrity is the obligation of peer reviewers to maintain the confidentiality of the unpublished research they evaluate. Reviewers must keep the contents and ideas of the manuscript secret until the research is formally published.

Confidentiality in Peer Review

Data fabrication is a violation of scholarly integrity that occurs when a researcher invents non-existent data. Because the scientific goal is to understand the world as it actually is, researchers have a duty to report their findings honestly and accurately. Therefore, they must never fabricate data, even if the actual findings contradict their hypotheses or expectations.

Data Fabrication

During the publication process, collaborators must address publication credit early on to determine who will be listed as authors on the research and the specific order of those authors. To maintain scholarly integrity, authorship must accurately reflect the importance of each individual's actual contribution to the research.

Publication Credit

Plagiarism is an unethical practice that involves using someone else's words or ideas without giving them proper acknowledgment. In academic research, maintaining scholarly integrity during the writing and publication process requires researchers to actively avoid plagiarism by correctly citing original sources.

Plagiarism

Data Falsification

Self-plagiarism is considered an unethical practice in which researchers publish the same material more than once. This means researchers should not borrow prior phrasing from their own previously published works, similar to how students are prohibited from submitting the exact same assignment to multiple classes.

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