Articles for tag: Compliance

slicing a research paper in two to illustrate the practice of salami slicing

Salami Slicing: A Recipe for Research Misconduct

Salami slicing, breaking a paper on a single study up into smaller “slices” and publishing them in more than one journal,  is broadly discouraged and considered unethical. Why does the practice persist? What do PIs believe are the benefits of doing it? Two problems Breaking up research into smaller slices can have serious consequences for ...

science integrity inspectors

Unintentional Plagiarism: Is it Avoidable?

Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s words, ideas, or visuals as if they were your original work. Unintentional plagiarism is plagiarism that results from the disregard for proper scholarly procedures. It’s much easier to commit than one would think, and it has toppled giants in the research enterprise. From 2007-2020, the National Science Foundation ...

science integrity inspectors

Science Integrity

Some European institutions, according to a recently published Nature article, have started to rely on science integrity inspectors to review papers prior to submission for errors in manuscripts.1 So far, this has not caught on in the United States. The question is, should it? One of the institutes highlighted in the Nature article was the ...

Sarah Hill

reproducibility machine: cartoon of scientists on conveyor belt

Reproducibility, Rigor and Rigmarole

Imagine a hypothetical “Dear Abby” letter to the science community: “I am the principal investigator and corresponding author on a paper detailing research findings in our lab. A leading investigator at another university contacted me and states that she cannot duplicate our results.  I re-ran the samples analyzed by my post-doc and I couldn’t either. ...

cartoon showing showing scalable compliance as a researcher watering a plant

Growing Pains: Scalable Compliance

Scalable Compliance Reliance The idea of scalable compliance is that an organization or department maintain efficiency as it grows in size. It is the ability to adjust to an increase in workload by adding resources, like more employees, to the system. Imagine you have a beet patch on a small farm. You’re a regular Dwight ...

research misconduct in the lab

3 Ways to Prevent University Research Misconduct

There are so many instances of university research misconduct that the spotlight is shining brighter on institutions now than ever. Not the good kind of spotlight, either. Findings involving university research can be either good or bad. We celebrate, publish and acknowledge scientific contributions at universities. After all, research is part of our mission. Conversely, ...

Little White Lies

To comply is to obey, or conform to instruction or official requirements. In a perfect world, research non-compliance wouldn’t occur and following the rules would be a behavioral norm. But the reality is, to err is human.