I just came across a researcher who collected his data using cross-sectional design in 2004. He continued publishing different papers using the same data until 2015 while purporting to test different models using different constructs and questionnaires.
1. Is it correct to change authorship of the manuscripts to mask this unethical practice as done by the author (s)?
2. What should come first. The questionnaire design or the data collection?
3. If I want to publish a paper on this issues, should I submit the work as a critical review or a normal research paper?
4. When can a data be viewed as expired?
Good. My publications are in class B Journals and soon enough, I will be publishing in class A Journals. Would you mind to share with me some publications from this Professor regarding the data shelf-life? His email address will be the icing of the cake.
1. It is unethical to have different co-authors who do not contribute.
2. Questionnaire design must obviously come before the data is collected by the questionnaire. However, the questionnaire can be pre-tested before the real data is collected.
3. Do not write a paper or a review to whistleblow. It is far less work and faster to whistleblow. Consider an E-mail letter to the dean or to the journal.
4. It is in fact very useful and highly legitimate to test different models by using the same (outdated) data. At least you can now be sure that all changes are due to the different methods, and not from a change in the underlying data. Data expires when it is no longer useful.
Great question!!
I agree with you Dr Ian Kennedy, you have explained it very well.
Regards!
Data may be changed after some months. Why should the same data be used in publishing different papers for more than a year? It may result in data modification and falsification which is unethical.
I agree with Ian's advice. However, the information that I have at the moment, does not show any indication that the initial data was for pilot study. The sample size has remained constant from 2003 to 2015 but with more than 80% changes on the content of the survey instruments.
Over 13 papers have been published in different Journals. This means writing 13 emails to these Journals.
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