Research Integrity training for all staff and students is mandatory for all carrying out research within the university. Training is provided by way of an online course offered by Epigeum; promoting the responsible conduct of research in the research community. The university has gained access to this service through the Technological Higher Education Association (THEA) which is running a national pilot scheme to provide such services to all institutes across the sector. The Epigeum course includes a robust certification framework based on key learner outcomes.
The assessment is delivered using randomly selected questions to ensure learners can demonstrate knowledge across the breadth of the course before being awarded a certificate of course completion. All active researchers in the university are requested to undertake this training. If you are interested in undergoing the training programme, please contact the Research Integrity and Compliance Officer who will be able to assist you with access to the online course.
What is Research Misconduct?
Fabrication of data: making up results and recording or reporting them when they are known to be false.
Falsification of data: manipulating research, materials, equipment or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.
Plagiarism: the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit, including those obtained through confidential review of others' research proposals and manuscripts (as defined in the National Policy Statement on Ensuring Research Integrity in Ireland, 2019).
Selectively excluding data from analysis and deliberate misinterpreting data to obtain desired results, including inappropriate use of statistical methods also constitutes misconduct. Doctoring images in publications or producing false data or results under pressure from a sponsor or a collaborator is also a very serious matter.
Framework to Enhance Research Integrity in Research Collaborations
The Framework to Enhance Research Integrity in Research Collaborations, is designed to help researchers reinforce a culture of responsible conduct of research (research integrity) in their research collaborations, so they can, as far as possible, avoid incidences of serious research misconduct and unacceptable research practices occurring during the collaborative work. The IUA and THEA developed this document in the awareness that collaboration is central to research and innovation, and that increasingly, researchers work together and with a wide range of external stakeholders to deliver outcomes that expand the boundaries of human knowledge and have the potential to deliver real benefits for today’s rapidly developing society.
A copy of the document can be accessed online.
Unacceptable research practice
While fabrication, falsification and plagiarism are very serious issues, other poor research practices may lead to questions around the integrity of research and impact on the reputation of the researcher, the research team or the university. A combination of poor practice and repeated issues in maintaining data integrity may constitute research misconduct.
The practices include the following and are not confined to:
Research procedures; Misconduct relating to research procedures may include harmful or dangerous research methods, poor research design including experimental and computational errors. Other poor research procedures include the violation of human subject protocols and/or failure to protect human subjects from harm and the abuse or mistreatment of laboratory animals.
Data-related practices; This includes poor practices in preserving the primary data for the specified period, poor data management including the storage and sharing of research data and failure to destroy data timely or appropriately. Withholding data from the scientific community also constitutes data related misconduct.
Publication-related practices; This includes the claiming of undeserved authorship, denying authorship to contributors, including authors without permission and artificially proliferating publications. Failure to correct the publication record is also research misconduct.
Personal behaviours; This includes significant deficiencies in supervision of the next generation of researchers and scholars, inappropriate personal behaviour in any form, harassment or insensitivity to social or cultural norms.
Financial and other misconduct; Misconduct may result from the non-disclosure of conflicts of interest, peer review abuse, misrepresenting credentials or publication record, misuse or research funds and/or for personal gain or making up a false, malicious or unsubstantiated misconduct allegations.
Research Integrity training for all staff and students is mandatory for all carrying out research within the university. Training is provided by way of an online course offered by Epigeum; promoting the responsible conduct of research in the research community. The university has gained access to this service through the Technological Higher Education Association (THEA) which is running a national pilot scheme to provide such services to all institutes across the sector.
The Epigeum course includes a robust certification framework based on key learner outcomes. The assessment is delivered using randomly selected questions to ensure learners can demonstrate knowledge across the breadth of the course before being awarded a certificate of course completion. All active researchers in the university are requested to undertake this training. If you are interested in undergoing the training programme, please contact the Research Integrity Officer who will be able to assist you with access to the online course.
You can register your interest in participating in the Epigeum research Integrity training by signing up via our online form.