Dear Colleagues,
No doubt, there are huge pressures to complete Ph.D. and there are various other factors that force a researcher to undertake different wrong steps.
Academic dishonesty is one such step that is very much prevalent. Once you encounter such a work that has elements of academic dishonesty, how to deal with it?
Given such a scenario, what must be changed and how to encounter it, through a humane approach.
Your response shall help a lot of people.
Consequences of academic dishonesty depend on the severity of the offense and your institution’s policy. For those working in academia or pursuing research, academic dishonesty impacts your professional reputation, leading others to doubt your future work.
To to deal with it, we may opt;
1. Researcher Conduct, Discipline, and Due Process Rights
Researcher Code of Conduct must emphasizes research misconduct includes "falsification of data, improper assignment of authorship, claiming another person's work as one's own, unprofessional manipulation of experiments or of research procedures, [and] misappropriation of research funds".
The purpose of this procedure is to provide a prompt and equitable means to address violations of the Code of Student Conduct, which ensures to the student or students involved the due process rights guaranteed them by institution/Universitystate. This procedure will be used in a fair and equitable manner, and not for purposes of retaliation.
2. Resolution via the Departmental Agreement Process.
The supervisor/guide should interact with the researcher via e-mail or Skype to discuss the allegation, and guide him/her to follow the departmental agreement process for the protection of academic dishonesty.
Regards,
I think that there is no principal difference between academic dishonesty (or misconduct) in writing a Ph.D. thesis or a scientific publication. It depends on the amount of pressure to complete a thesis or to "publish or perish", but also on individual personality. Universities and institutes should have commissions or ombudspersons who can be contacted in such cases. However, there is no ideal solution for this. About 15 years ago I learned about a case in an Austrian university. A Ph.D. thesis in history was practically a complete plagiarism from different sources. When I read it (before learning about the plagiarism) I wondered about the different styles in different chapters. This question of plagiarism was raised in the institute, but the influential advisor of the thesis regarded this as a personal assault, and the case never came to investigation. The person in question still wears his doctorate today. In other cases in Germany, when politicians were involved and the press was informed, universities had to conduct investigations, and in several cases doctoral degrees were revoked.
Here are other discussions on scientific misconduct, fraud etc.:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_big_of_a_problem_is_scientific_misconduct
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Fraud_by_Numbers_Metrics_and_the_New_Academic_Misconduct
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Are_federal_funding_agencies_insensitive_to_data_fabrication
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_action_can_you_take_against_someone_who_has_published_an_article_in_a_journal_but_did_not_give_you_a_rightful_authorship
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_there_any_one_to_defend_Honorary_forced_authorship_if_not_why_we_practice_it
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Papers_from_research_work
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_it_morally_right_or_wrong_for_reviewers_to_propose_articles_unrelated_to_your_work_for_you_to_cite
Colleges and Universities take cases of dishonesty as an act of defrauding the academic institution. Although not looked at as a criminal act, academic dishonesty could lead to criminal charges in some instances. The following paper might give you a clear framework in this regard:
Article Academic integrity at doctoral level: the influence of the i...
Dear Shubhi Agarwal Shuraik Kader Emmanuel V Murray Wolfgang R. Dick Ajit Singh Thank you very much for your superb insights on the subject.
Indeed, Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick , there is a need to ease out the pressures on students and move from the publish or perish mentality, towards quality and creativity-based research.
Thank you all.
Sincere regards
Gowhar Meraj
Academic dishonesty is just not being recognized as"dishonesty" by many of the supervisors. Only lucky students get support from their seniors otherwise the whole Ph.D. journey becomes ruthless.
Dear Dr. Gowhar Meraj ,
Universities do not generally address hazing, Academic dishonesty and pressures to complete Ph.D.'s, but hazing and cheating due to disability, bullying, inferiority complex or sexual advances or assault are not new practices. Academic dishonesty is also often affected by peer pressure expressing group power to succeed, but if we ask how academic organizations can influence integrity, we might suggest that institutions can probably address these shortcomings simply by the "latu sensu" requirement of ethical behavior on a par with good educational literature.
Cf.
Article Prevalence of questionable research practices, research misc...
Article What influences PhD graduate trajectories during the degree:...
Article Contract cheating: A new challenge for academic honesty?
When there is a campaign of completing a Ph.D. within 3 years, I have observed many Ph.D. colleagues "cheat" in collecting data.
