Research ethics

The British Museum learned it was wrong to brush off a whistleblower. Universities and journals should do the same, says David Sanders

Two years on from international scandal, Karl Andersson claims he had received nothing but praise for article prior to online outcry

If the choice is between impact factor and maintaining the content’s integrity, there is little contest

University of Arkansas’ decades-old gift traced to raft of disputed research now playing key political role

Preventing publication of two major taxpayer-funded studies into bullying and homelessness is wrong, say academics left in limbo

AI model released by students sparked controversy for similarities to one developed by scientists from Tsinghua University

Academic exploration of leading university’s traditions uncovers dispossession, eugenics and grave robbing

Making people paranoid about employing familiar and useful words is not the way to encourage responsible AI use, say Lilian Schofield and Xue Zhou 

Investigation finds research careers create ‘perverse incentives’ that cause academics to ‘lose sight of boundaries’

As part of annual budget, lawmakers also call for focus on fraud, new funding models and peer review

Boston ethnographer argues that people often disclose more than intended when they close ranks and create obstacles

Poll of researchers finds little support for pulling scholarly papers of those found guilty of objectionable personal behaviour

Editors express concern over dating of soil samples ‘not associated with manmade features’, but authors attack ‘unjust retraction of groundbreaking research’

‘We have an obligation to try something ground-breaking,’ says oncologist confronting co-Australian of the Year’s brain cancer

Penn’s Michael Mann, long-time warrior against fossil fuel denialism, hopes jury repudiation of bloggers brings scientists some relief

Huang Feiruo placed on leave by Huazhong Agricultural University after whistleblowing report circulates widely

Claudine Gay did not plagiarise, and those who add her to the list of leaders who did ignore the hostile context of the accusations, says Harvey Graff

‘I would not accept his evidence as sufficient to establish any scientific proposition at all,’ says ruling

Required remedies include harsher punishments, more flexible research design stipulations and stronger social sanctions, says Akhil Bhardwaj

With Claudine Gay accepting debatable instances of plagiarism as final straw, faculty see odds getting hopeless for countering unified political and economic power

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Claudine Gay case, proper referencing should be insisted on to encourage critical, original thinking, says Ian Pace

Biden officials call for publicising details of bad science allegations brought to the government, raising institutional warnings of privacy and legal violations

Scholars advocate creation of global database after analysing scale of travel, free meals and gifts disbursed by medical sector in France

More rigorous checking targets hyper-authorship, excessive self-citation and unusual patterns of group citation activity

University investigates Berislav Zlokovic after his lab members describe image and notebook manipulation, and warn of danger to stroke patients from resulting medical trial

Many researchers need more help to negotiate a wide array of ethical issues, from identity to genetic engineering, says Aymen Idris

Instead of focusing on the reliability of the data, I know first-hand that defamation suits become personal and career-threatening, says David Sanders

Journalists and scientist bloggers poke and point to dodgy bits of literature using limited resources. Is there a better way to support them, and defend them against multimillion-dollar lawsuits?

Karl Andersson’s article about his use of provocative images of young boys caused outrage among MPs and scholars

We must reform a science culture that sometimes seems to value impact and quantity over importance and quality, say Ferric Fang and Arturo Casadevall

Independent regulator would overcome entrenched conflicts of interest and remove ‘barriers’ for whistleblowers, according to former corruption commissioner

Copying others’ work is theft and corrupts the literature. Concern for culprits’ welfare should not preclude punishment, says an academic

By distributing both credit and blame where it is due, initiatives such as CRediT can help deter research fraud, says Paul Ayris 

Francesca Gino’s attorney claims Harvard’s ‘utter disregard for evidence, due process and confidentiality’ has wrecked her career

September will see thousands of thesis defenders invited to swear oath to scientific ethics and integrity, but many remain sceptical of ritual’s value

Leading science funder warns institutions that faculty who mistreat staff can’t remain as grant supervisors

University of Aizu president Toshiaki Miyazaki quits after investigation found he published the same conference paper on multiple occasions

Independent centre should be empowered to follow up high-profile findings and promote good practice, says Social Market Foundation report

Academics granted unique access to ‘black box of algorithms’ to explore social media’s influence on 2020 presidential election, but many question if ‘independence by permission’ model can endure

While Marc Tessier-Lavigne has fallen on his sword, the circumstances of his departure point to much deeper problems with scholarly norms and incentives

Marc Tessier-Lavigne agrees to step down after months-long university investigation finds failures to correct errors in articles

Ethics committees should further a culture of research ethics rather than act as judge and jury, say Yoann Bazin and Élise Goiseau

UCL and King’s researchers clash over ‘sarky’ critique of paper that questioned root causes of depression

Johns Hopkins professor confronted with repeated instances of image manipulation, though Harvard peer sees no implications for discoveries behind 2019 honour

After three years of retractions and investigations, Kate Laskowski reflects on her role in exposing her co-author’s research misconduct

‘Census’ of research integrity advisors finds that their role is unknown to many, sometimes including themselves

At formal inauguration, former Duke provost promises new interdisciplinary push, plus sees room to protect climate while keeping Koch funding

Beijing’s censorship of 2018 gene-edited babies case has prevented ‘crucial’ research ethics dialogue, says scholar

After claims of image manipulation in papers by Marc Tessier-Lavigne, neuroscientist promises vindication amid signs of faculty unease

Leading US public institution found by news investigation to still hold bones of 9,000 people, most in nation, more than three decades after federal ban

Students often have no choice but to include professors who have had no input into papers as co-authors, says Roohola Ramezani

Leading scientists ‘appalled’ to find sham papers have been attributed to them say case against UK-registered publishers is overdue

Many sources of scrutiny already exist, but the idea of a perfect research project is an unattainable fantasy, says Andrew Barnas

Ombudsmen need more resources and voluntary investigators need recognition if fabrication is finally to be taken seriously, says sleuth

Accusations of plagiarism regarding a sacred medieval book have led to an extraordinary dispute involving online threats and allegations that staff and offices were invented

Identifying deception often requires analysis of patterns across large collections of articles. Publishers must work together, says David McDade

Fraud and fabrication are not rarities, suggests Australian survey of early career scholars

Plos puts warnings on almost 50 papers after alleged reuse of ethical approvals, undeclared conflicts of interest and publication rates equivalent to an article every three days  

Governance of data science research makes it difficult to highlight potentially harmful impacts that might arise, says ethics review report

Outside experts see potential problems in decades-old papers where Tessier-Lavigne served as a co-author, although any potential responsibility seems far from clear