RASHTRASANT TUKADOJI MAHARAJ NAGPUR UNIVERSITY

Code of Ethics for Research

Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Nagpur

Handbook of Code of Ethics in Research
For
Research Students, Teachers, Support Staff,
Head of Departments of University and Statutory Officers

Sr. No.	Content	Page No.
1.	Objectives and Scope of Code of ethics	2
2.	Ethical Concern in Research	2
	2.1 Plagiarism	2-3
	2.1. Misuse of information	3-4
3.	Research data keeping and maintenance for reliability of data	4-5
4.	Authorship and Other Publication Issues	5-6
5.	Conflicts of Interest
6.	Obligations in use Laboratory Animal in Research
7.	Conclusion

 

1. Objectives and Scope of Code of ethics

The purpose of this set of guidelines is to provide a positively oriented set of practical suggestions for maintaining integrity in research. It is applied to whole research activities conducted in RTMNU platform i.e. Ph.D. research, research proposal for funding, defining research questions and allocating resources for research, conducting research , data collection, storage and retrieval interpretation, sharing of data and result; presenting and publishing of results; training and mentoring of students and contributing to the professional community .

Not only does the ethical conduct of science satisfy a scientific moral code; it also leads to better scientific results because the adherence to ethical research practices leads to more attention to the details of scientific research, including qualitative analysis and quantitative and statistical techniques, and to more thoughtful collaboration among investigators. Also, the credibility of science with the general public depends on the maintenance of the highest ethical standards in research.

Execution of these guidelines will help an investigator avoid departures from accepted ethical research practice and prevent those most serious deviations that constitute research misconduct. Research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism, including misrepresentation of credentials, in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results. It does not include honest error or differences of opinion. Misconduct as defined above is viewed as a serious professional deviation that is subject to sanctions imposed both by the University, by many professional associations, and, in the case of research proposed to or funded by government and non-government agencies.

2. ETHICAL CONCERN IN RESEARCH

2.1 Plagiarism

Authors who present the words, data, or ideas of others with the implication that they are their own, without attribution in a form appropriate for the medium of presentation, are committing theft of intellectual property and may be guilty of plagiarism and thus of research misconduct. This statement applies to reviews and to methodological and background/historical sections of research papers as well as to original research results or interpretations. If there is a word-for-word copying beyond a short phrase or six or seven words of someone else's text, that section should be enclosed in quotation marks or indented and referenced, at the location in the manuscript of the copied material, to the original source. The same rules apply to grant applications and proposals, and to student papers submitted for academic credit. Not only does plagiarism violate the standard code of conduct governing all researchers, but in many cases it could constitute an infraction of the law by infringing on a copyright held by the original author or publisher. An author should cite the work of others even if he or she had been a co-author or editor of the work to be cited or had been an adviser or student of the author of such work.

The work of others should be cited or credited, whether published or unpublished and whether it had been written work, an oral presentation, or material on a website. Each journal or publisher may specify the particular form of appropriate citation. One need not provide citations, however, in the case of well-established concepts that may be found in common textbooks or in the case of phrases, which describe a commonly used methodology. Special rules have been developed for citing electronic information.

Members of a research group who contribute to work that is later incorporated into a proposal or protocol are entitled to be consulted and informed as to what their role will be if the proposal is funded or the protocol approved. A charge of plagiarism in the proposal or protocol on grounds that such members are not later included as part of the team that conducts the approved or funded research, however, can usually not be sustained . Such researchers who are excluded from subsequent research are entitled, however, to be considered for co-authorship i n publications if their contributions merit it.

2.2 Misuse of Information

One particularly serious form of plagiarism is the misuse of information taken from a grant application or manuscript received from a funding agency or journal editor for peer review. In such a case, the plagiarism is a serious matter of theft of intellectual property because it not only deprives the original author of appropriate credit by citation but could also anticipate priority of first publication or use of the original idea to which the source author is entitled. Also, one who breaches confidentiality by showing a privileged unpublished document to an unauthorized person can be held to a shared responsibility for any subsequent plagiarism of the document committed by that unauthorized person.

3. RESEARCH DATA: KEEPING AND MAINTAINING FOR RELIABILITY

Fabrication and falsification of research results are serious forms of misconduct. It is a primary responsibility of a researcher to avoid either a false statement or an omission that distorts the research record. A researcher must not report anticipated research results that had not yet been observed at the time of submission of the report. In order to preserve accurate documentation of observed facts with which later reports or conclusions can be compared, every researcher has an obligation to maintain a clear and complete record of data acquired.

All data should be recorded contemporaneously with the production or observation of the data. If some data are obtained as printouts from instruments or computers, these printouts should be appropriately labeled and pasted into the notebook or, if pasting is not possible, stored securely and referenced in the notebook as to storage location. If unique critical materials, such as cell lines, archeological artifacts, or synthetic chemical intermediates, are prepared or discovered , they should be preserved and appropriately labeled, and explicit instructions should be written in the notebook as to where they are stored. Extensive data sets may be stored either as hard copy or on disks. In such cases, carefully documented definitions for codes should be included, together with rules for applying them to the experimental, clinical, or field data and notes.

The use of computers in research laboratories is a necessity, and managing the data generated and stored is becoming a challenge to the investigator. In establishing a process to protect the data and ensure that the data are formatted so that they could not be modified, one suggestion would be to write the data to a CD-ROM (CD-R) where they could not be modified or overwritten.

4. AUTHORSHIP AND OTHER PUBLICATION ISSUES

Publication of research results is important as a means of communicating to the scholarly world so that readers may be informed of research results and other researchers may build on the reported findings. In fact, it is an ethical obligation for an investigator at the University to make research findings accessible, in a manner consistent with the relevant standards of publication. The reported data and methods should be sufficiently detailed so that other researchers could attempt to replicate the results. Publication should be timely but should not be hastened unduly if premature publication involves a risk of not subjecting all results to adequate internal confirmation or of not considering adequately all possible interpretations.

• Criteria for Authorship: Publication must give appropriate credit to all authors for their roles in the research. If more than one person contributes significantly, the decision of which names are to be listed as co-authors should reflect the relative contributions of various participants in the research. Many professional associations and research journals have specified criteria for authorship. One common standard appearing in many of these statements is that each author should have participate in formulating the research problem interpreting the results, and writing the research paper, and should be prepared to defend the publication against criticisms.
• A person's name should not be listed as author without his or her knowledge, permission and review of the final version of the manuscript that includes the names of all co-authors.
• Self-citations: In citing one's own unpublished work, an author must be careful not to imply an unwarranted status of a manuscript. A paper should not be listed as submitted, in anticipation of expected submission. A paper should not be listed as accepted for publication or in press unless the author has received galley proof or page proof or has received a letter from an editor or publisher stating that publication has been approved, subject perhaps only to copy-editing.
• Duplicate Publication: Researchers should not publish the same article in two different places without very good reason to do so, unless appropriate citation is made in the later publication to the earlier one, and unless the editor explicitly informed. The same rule applies to abstracts. If there unexplained duplication of publication without citation, sometimes referred to as self-plagiarism, a reader may be deceived as to the amount of original research data.
• Early Release of Information About to be Published: It is unethical to release scientific information contained in an accepted manuscript prior to the publication. An exception may be made if a public health issue is involved and the editor agrees to an advance release.

 

5. CONFLICT OF INTEREST

There are some circumstances in which conflicts of interest could compromise the integrity of research or even lead to research misconduct, for example, by the distortion of research outcomes as a result of personal financial interests of a researcher. The annual disclosures of outside interests by researchers required under the University's Conflict of Interest Policy and the review of these disclosures by academic administrators are intended to avoid the escalation of conflicts into improper behavior or misconduct and to avoid even the perception of improper behavior. Possible preventive measures provided under that policy include divestiture, public disclosure of outside interests, reduction of the conflicted researcher's role in the research, and internal monitoring of the research within the University. A notice of conflicting financial interests must be included, possibly as a footnote, in publications, in research proposals and reports. Many journals and funding agencies require such disclosures. A faculty member must also disclose to research students and members of the research staff the existence of his or her financial interests in activities related to the research. When asked to enter into peer review of a manuscript or proposal, a researcher must disclose any conflict of interest with respect to the matter under review.

• In the special case where University researchers are considering or are involved in commercialization of an invention, for example through a start-up company or by licensing technology to an established company, researchers should consult the Conflict of Interest Policy for Faculty, Scholars, Researchers, Research Staff/Coordinators.
• Faculty may be allowed to engage in outside professional activities such as consulting or service on a scientific advisory board, but approval of each such activity from management council must be obtained in advance.
• In no case are University facilities to be used in the conduct of an outside activity, and the University name and logo may be used by outside entities only with advance permission of management council.

 

6. OBLIGATIONS IN USE LABORATORY ANIMAL IN RESEARCH:

• Research subjects - human, animal - should be handled with due respect and care. The health, safety or welfare of a community or collaborators should not be compromised. Researchers should be sensitive to their research subjects. Protocols that govern research into human subjects must not be violated. Animals should be used in research only after alternative approaches have proved inadequate. The expected benefits of such research must outweigh the harm or distress inflicted on an animal.
• Investigators who use laboratory animals are obliged to follow procedures so as to minimize animal pain, suffering, and distress and to use no more animals than absolutely necessary.
• Wherever possible, alternative protocols which do not require the use of animals should be considered, and if practicable, adopted.
• Written approval must be obtained from the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA), Government of India prior to the initiation of any research or teaching that requires the use of animals.

7. Conclusion:

The code of ethics documents to provide basic guidelines to conduct good research practices at RTM Nagpur university. It can be changed as per need by consent of management council.

References:

1. UGC Guidelines on Good Academics Research Practices:
   https://www.ugc.ac.in/e-book/grap_29092020/mobile/index.html
2. The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity:
   http://www.icac.cat/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/codi_allea_11.pdf
3. San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment:
   https://sfdora.org/read/