Research and Ethics

Defining violations of research integrity

Research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results. However, the ECA definition of violations of research integrity is broader than that. It also includes practices that seriously deviate from those that are commonly accepted within the research community for proposing, conducting or reporting research. In the ALLEA Code, these practices are called Other Unacceptable Practices (OUPs).

Fabrication

Making up data or results and recording or reporting them.

Examples of fabrication:

• Completing a questionnaire for a fictitious subject that was never interviewed.
• Creating a data set for an experiment that was never actually conducted.
• Adding fictitious data to a real data set collected during an actual experiment for the purpose of providing additional statistical validity.
• Insertion of a clinical note into the research record to indicate compliance with an element of the protocol.

Falsification

Manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting/suppressing data or results without scientific or statistical justification, such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record. This would include the "misrepresentation of uncertainty" during statistical analysis of the data.

Examples of Falsification

• Alteration of data to render a modification of the variances in the data;
• Falsifying dates and experimental procedures in the study notebook;
• Misrepresenting results from statistical analysis;
• Misrepresenting the methods of an experiment such as the model used to conduct the experiment;
• The addition of false or misleading statements in the manuscript or published paper;
• Misrepresenting the materials or methods of a research study in a published paper;
• Providing false statements about the extent of a research study;
• Falsificying telephone call attempts to collect data for a survey study.

Plagiarism

The copying of other people's work without adequate source references either in an identical or slightly adjusted fashion. 'Work' means ideas, writings, structures, designs, images, plans, code, including those obtained through (confidential) review of others' research proposals and manuscripts, etc.

A special case of plagiarism is the reuse of (segments of) one's own previously published material in a new publication without adequate referencing, also known as 'text recyling' .

Examples/ forms of plagiarism:

• Copying another person’s text (almost) literally without indicating that the text is a quote and/or without an adequate reference;
• Paraphrasing another person’s ideas without an adequate reference;
• Translating a text without an adequate reference;
• Copying an image, scheme, graph, figure, audio or video fragment without an adequate reference;

Other Unacceptable Practices (OUPs)

Examples of ‘OUPs’ are:

• guest, gift or ghost authorship
  Note:
• • guest authors are those who do not meet accepted authorship criteria but are listed because of their seniority, reputation or supposed influence
  • gift authors are those who do not meet accepted authorship criteria but are listed as a personal favour or in return for payment
  • ghost authors are those who meet authorship criteria but are not listed
• duplicate publication and ‘salami slicing’ publication;
• dropping observations or data points from analyses based on a gut feeling that they were inaccurate
• inadequate record keeping related to research projects
• failure to disclose conflicts of interest

Research integrity and plagiarism in education

Research integrity

Education at ECA not only supports academic research, but also educates you in research. You learn how to formulate research questions, search for sources, make hypotheses, carry out experiments, analyze data, present your results orally as well as in written form.

During your education, your teaching staff members focus on the principles of “research integrity”. They will teach you how to reference correctly and illustrate what is meant with ‘adequate referencing’ in your scientific domain.

Definition of plagiarism at ECA

If you do not correctly cite your sources, you commit plagiarism. If you plagiarise, the teaching staff member cannot judge your knowledge, insight and skills correctly. Because of that, plagiarism is a form of ”irregularities” according to the Education and Examination Regulations (see portal LOGOS).

Copying the work (ideas, texts, structures, designs, images, plans, codes ...) of others or prior personal work in an exact or slightly modified way without adequately acknowledging the sources.

Whether or not the irregularity is the consequence of a deliberate choice of the students and whether or not it has led to an advantage is irrelevant to the finding of fact.

Plagiarism by using GenAI

You can also commit plagiarism with the irresponsible use of GenAI. To generate material, GenAI uses the work of others to which you cannot refer. In addition, the irresponsible use of GenAI can also make it (partly) impossible to correctly assess your knowledge, insight and skills as a student. This too is an “irregularity” according to the Education and Examination Regulations.

Examples of plagiarism in education

Plagiarism occurs in different forms:

• Copying another person’s work (almost) word for word, without mentioning that it is a quote and/or without adequately acknowledging the sources;
• Paraphrasing another person’s reasoning, possibly with the help of tools, without adequately acknowledging the sources;
• Translating a text without adequately acknowledging the sources, possibly with the help of tools;
• Copying an image, diagram, graph, figure, audio or video fragment without adequately acknowledging the sources;
• Self-plagiarism: reusing your own work without adequately acknowledging the source.
• Using text or ideas generated by GenAI as your own work.

Serious cases of examination fraud also are closely related to plagiarism:

• Having your paper written or edited by someone else;
• Simulating or faking research data.

Plagiarism prevention

Consult general guidelines to prevent plagiarism by applying a correct methodolgy.  

Plagiarism detection

How is plagiarism traced and detected? 

Sanctioning plagiarism

1. If plagiarism is suspected in the final version of your assignment, the select examination committee will “hear” you. That means that the chair and the secretary of the examination committee, and the ombudsperson will invite you. They will confront you with the suspicion of plagiarism and give you the opportunity to react.
2. Next, your dossier is presented to the full examination committee. The examination committee verifies whether there is a case of plagiarism and determines the seriousness of plagiarism. They will then deliberate the penalty and share their decision. You can appeal the examination committee’s decision.
3. The examination committee will attune the penalty to the seriousness of plagiarism. They can also decide that the penalty’s effect on your examination results needs to be more substantial than when you would not have submitted your paper.

The Education and Examination Regulations provide seven possible penalties for examination fraud, such as plagiarism:

1. You need to rewrite the assignment and submit it on a date set by the faculty;
2. You receive a lower grade for the assignment;
3. You receive a zero for the assignment or the course it is a part of;
4. You receive a zero for multiple or all examinations in the examination period concerned;
5. The rejection to one or more courses from the examination period concerned: you receive a zero for the courses concerned and you are not allowed to participate in the resit;
6. The rejection to a study programme: you receive a zero for all examinations from the examination period concerned, as well as a deregistration for the study programme during that academic year;
7. The rejection combined with losing the right to registration: for one or two years, you are not allowed to register for any study programme at ECA.