Unit V

PUBLICATION MISCONDUCT
Group Discussion : a) Subject specific ethical issues, FFP, authorship b)
Conflicts ofinterest c) Complaints and appeals: examples and fraud from
India and abroad
d) Software tools: Use of plagiarism software like Turnitin, Urkund and
other open source software tools.

By

Dr. G.M. VIJAYALAKSHMI

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS,
VEL TECH RANGARAJAN DR. SAGUNTHALA
R&D INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.
AVADI
a) Subject specific ethical issues

Informed Consent
A norm of voluntary participation is presumed in all sociological research projects. In
other words, we cannot force anyone to participate in our research without that person’s
knowledge or consent. Researchers must therefore design procedures to obtain
subjects’ informed consent to participate in their research. Informed consent is defined as a
subject’s voluntary agreement to participate in research based on a full understanding of the
research and of the possible risks and benefits involved. Although it sounds simple, ensuring
that one has actually obtained informed consent is a much more complex process than you
might initially presume.

Protection of Identities
In protecting subjects’ identities, researchers typically promise to maintain either
the anonymity or the confidentiality of their research subjects. Anonymity is the more
stringent of the two. When a researcher promises anonymity to participants, not even the
researcher is able to link participants’ data with their identities.

Anonymity may be impossible for some sociological researchers to promise because

several of the modes of data collection that sociologists employ, such as participant
observation and face-to-face interviewing, require that researchers know the identities of their
research participants. In these cases, a researcher should be able to at least promise
confidentiality to participants. Offering confidentiality means that some identifying
information on one’s subjects is known and may be kept, but only the researcher can link
participants with their data and he or she promises not to do so publicly.

Disciplinary Considerations
1. Professional competence
2. Integrity
3. Professional and scientific responsibility
4. Respect for people’s rights, dignity, and diversity
5. Social responsibility

The principle of professional competence states that researchers should recognize

their own limitations and only conduct research for which they have been properly trained. It
also states that researchers should engage in ongoing education for themselves in order to
remain competent. The principle of integrity directs that sociologists be “honest, fair, and
respectful” in all their professional activities including, but not limited to, their research
activities. The third principle, professional and scientific responsibility, guides sociologists to
be respectful in their relationships with one another at the same time that it warns against
collegiality if it impedes one’s ability to behave ethically. This principle balances scientific
collegiality with public trust in sociology. The fourth principle, respect for people’s rights,
dignity, and diversity, addresses the need to reduce bias in all professional activities. Finally,
social responsibility, the fifth principle, states that sociologists should “strive to advance the
science of sociology and serve the public good.”

Interest
An interest may be defined as a commitment, goal, or value held by an individual or
an institution.
 Examples include a research project to be completed, gaining status through
promotion or recognition, and protecting the environment. Interests are pursued in the setting
of social interactions.

b) Conflict of Interest (COI)

A conflict of interest exists when two or more contradictory interests relate to an
activity by an individual or an institution. The conflict lies in the situation, not in any
behaviour or lack of behaviour of the individual. That means that a conflict of interest is not
intrinsically a bad thing.

Examples include a conflict between financial gain and meticulous completion and
reporting of a research study or between responsibilities as an investigator and as a treating
physician for the same trial participant.

Institutional examples include the unbalancing of the institutional mission by

acceding to the space requests of a large donor for an idiosyncratic program.

Other definitions include

Conflicts of interest are "situations in which financial or other personal considerations
may compromise, or have the appearance of compromising, an investigator's judgement in
conducting or reporting research." AAMC, 1990

"A conflict of interest in research exists when the individual has interests in the
outcome of the research that may lead to a personal advantage and that might therefore, in
actuality or appearance compromise the integrity of the research." NAS, Integrity in
Scientific Research.

c) Appeals and Complaints

Policy and Process

The below procedure applies to appeals to editorial decisions, complaints about
failure of processes such as long delays in handling papers and complaints about publication
ethics. The complaint should in first instance be handled by the Editor-in-Chief(s) responsible
for the journal and/or the Editor who handled the paper. If they are the subject of the
complaint please approach the in-house publishing contact. (Please check the contacts page
on the journal homepage. If no publishing contact is identified send the query
to [Link]@[Link]).

Complaint about scientific content, e.g. an appeal against

rejection
The Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor considers the authors’ argument, the reviewer
reports and decides whether

- The decision to reject should stand

- Another independent opinion is required
- The appeal should be considered
 The complainant is informed of the decision with an explanation if appropriate.
Decisions on appeals are final and new submissions take priority over appeals.
Complaint about processes, e.g. time taken to review

The Editor-in-Chief together with the Handling Editor (where appropriate) and/or in-
house contact (where appropriate) will investigate the matter. The complainant will be given
appropriate feedback. Feedback is provided to relevant stakeholders to improve processes and
procedures.

Complaint about publication ethics, e.g., researcher's

author's, or reviewer's conduct

The Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor follows guidelines published by

the Committee on Publication Ethics. The Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor may ask the
publisher via their in-house contact for advice on difficult or complicated cases. The Editor-
in-Chief or Handling Editor decides on a course of action and provides feedback to the
complainant. If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint, he
or she can submit the complaint to the Committee on Publication Ethics. More information
can be found here.

d) Software Tools for Plagiarism

Plagiarism by the dictionary, means “copying another person's words and
pretending that they are your own”. Plagiarism is not considered as a major crime but
may fall under the category of copyright infringement in some cases and is a major
concern for educational institutions and publishing companies. Due to these reasons,
there has been an increasing demand for plagiarism checker software.

Best Free Plagiarism Detection Tools

1. Plagiarism Checker X 2. Turnitin Plagiarism Checker

3. Urkund Plagiarism Checker [Link]
5. Grammarly 6. Plagiarisma
7. Copyscape 8. Ginger
9. Plagscan 10. Duplichecker
11. CopyLeaks 12. Quetext
13. PaperRater 14. Plagium& [Link]

[Link] Plagiarism Checker

Turnitin software has the largest collection of academic and all forms of content
on the internet to check for even the slightest possibility of academic misconduct and
content duplicity. It is widely used by academic professionals to ensure content
originality and ensure the educational excellence. Further, the feedback and grading
features empower students to take up any new content task with confidence.

Features of Turnitin Online Plagiarism Checker:

• Instant analysis of content originality with citations and sources

 • Duplicity results presented in a simple format
• Also helps with grammar and spelling checks
• Provides suggestions for better word usage
• WriteCheck by Turnitin also provides the similarity score

2. Urkund Plagiarism Checker

Urkund’s anti-plagiarism tool helps detect and prevent plagiarism across multiple
languages. As soon as you submit a document for plagiarism detection, Urkund online
plagiarism detection starts retrieving all possible sources to provide an analysis
overview. With machine learning capabilities, Urkund detects the degree of matches,
paraphrasing, and more across different languages.

Features of Urkund:

• It checks for plagiarism in study materials, published materials and internet

sources
• Provides relevant matches for plagiarism with higher accuracy
• Ensures complete data security and allows you to create a secure content database
• Unmatched uptime and analysis delivery speed

Urkund Plagiarism Checker Software Pricing: It provides free guides and cheat sheets
for students; Urkund pricing can be requested on the official website.
Word Limit Per Search: NA
Urkund Anti Plagiarism Software Free Version: Most of the university students in
India have free access to Urkund software.
Urkund Plagiarism Checker App: Web app
Languages Supported: Any language which is Unicode compliant and supports Cyrillic
characters.

[Link] Checker X

Plagiarism Checker X is one of the best plagiarism detection tool available in the
market because of its diverse features. It is a content scanning tool that helps you
identify the level of plagiarism in documents like assignments, reports and articles. The
software has a huge number of users around the globe, as it is extremely cost effective
and reliable to use.

Key features of Plagiarism Checker X:

• Scans your documents up to 16 billion web pages across multiple search engines.
• It can locate copied content easily and you can get a side-by-side window to do
the comparison.
• Supports bulk-cross comparisons which means that you can analyze multiple
documents to determine their originality within single or multiple repositories.
• It can cross-examine up to 20,000 words within one second accurately.
• Your submitted content is not stored or uploaded anywhere. So, it is extremely
safe and secure in every sense.
• Supports 7 languages, i.e. English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch and
Portuguese.
4. iThenticate Plagiarism Detection Software

This is one of the most trusted plagiarism detection platforms by researchers,

scholars and publishers. It provides extensive reports that include the most relevant
matches for content duplicity from across the 70+ billion web pages, whether current or
archived. Whether you are a media publisher, government organization or the part o f the
legal, financial or HR team, you can ensure higher reputation of your organization with
iThenticate.
Features of iThenticate Plagiarism Detector:

• You can start easily by buying credits as per your needs

• It screens content submissions for duplicity with higher uptime
• Provides the most critical matches in minutes
• Detailed reports to detect sources of plagiarism.

5. Grammarly

Grammarly plagiarism checker lets you know whether your content is copied or not.
Grammarly has a premium version which also detects the content that requires citations
and provides an appropriate resource to give credits to the content, wherever needed. It is
a free plagiarism checker for teachers, students and many more.

6. Plagiarisma

Plagiarisma is a free plagiarism detection tool that can identify copied content
mainly in your essays, research papers, coursework, and dissertation. Since it is available
online, it is platform independent.

Key features of Plagiarisma:

• Works on multiple platforms like Windows, Android, Blackberry, Moodle and the
web.
• Supports various platforms like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Scholar.
• Helps with search engine optimization
• It can support various file formats including Word, PDF, HTML, TXT, XLS,
PPTX and many more.
• Support up to 190 languages.
• It can be used offline in Windows.

Languages Supported: Supports 190 plus languages