Authorship & Peer Review
and
Research Misconduct
(Plagiarism, Falsification & Fabrication)
650:270 Principles of Scholarly Integrity
The University of Iowa
Authorship & Misconduct Group
• Apollina Goel
– Free Radical & Radiation Biology
• Barry Kasson
– Pharmacology
• Ann Marie McCarthy
– Nursing
• Eric Nuxoll
– Chemical & Biochemical Engineering
• Thomas Schmidt
– Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Writing as a Graduate Student
• Changing expectations from
undergraduate to graduate education
• Writing for class vs writing for
publication
• Why is it important to publish?
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Develop and expand knowledge
Share information with community
Responsibility of scholars
Develop your career
Authors
Definitions
•Author: one that originates or creates
•Authorship: the source of a piece of writing, music, or art
Authors are:
• Responsible for content
– Accountability
Changes in publishing
• Pressure to publish
• Increase in multiple authors,
multiple disciplines
Authorship
• Who should be an author on a paper?
• Authorship credit should be based on
– 1) substantial contributions to conception
and design, or acquisition of data, or
analysis and interpretation of data;
– 2) drafting the article or revising it critically
for important intellectual content; and
– 3) final approval of the version to be
published.
• Authors should meet conditions 1, 2,
and 3.
Council of Science Editors, 2009
5
The University of Iowa
Operations Manual
• Chapter 27.6 Ethics in Research includes:
• b) Only those authors who have had a
genuine role in the research should be
included in authorship of papers, and all
named authors must accept responsibility for
the quality of the work reported;
Authorship
• “If you’re willing to take the credit, you have
to take the responsibility” (Macrina, 2005)
• Two major issues
– An author has to have made a significant
contribution
• Who/what does this include?
• May vary by discipline
– All authors take responsibility for the content
• With increasing complexity, are there aspects
that an author may not feel responsible for?
Decision to Publish
• Which journal should you submit to?
– Who is your audience? What is the impact?
– Confer with mentor
• Journals provide guidelines for preparing
manuscript
– Need to review these before writing your paper as
they vary by journal
Journal Instructions to Authors
Guidelines typically include:
– Information on manuscript preparation
• Page length/word limit for total manuscript
• Format and length of abstract
• Format and number of tables/figures
• Reference format
• Number of references
– Assignment of copyright to the publisher
– Description of manuscript review/peer review
process
– No prior publication of this material
– Funding/sponsorship of research
Journal Instructions to Authors
Guidelines may include:
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Statement of authors contribution
Sharing research materials
Conflicts of Interest
Guidelines on citing unpublished material
Page fees
Suggested reviewers/nonreviewers
Supplemental information
Types of Authors
• Order of Authorship
– The order of authorship should be a joint
decision of the co-authors. Authors should
be prepared to explain the order
– May vary by discipline
• First author vs last author
• Senior author
– Overall responsibility
• Corresponding author
• Acknowledgements
– Should include contributors who do not meet
criteria for authorship
Questionable Authors
• Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general
supervision of the research group, alone, does not
justify authorship (ICMJE Guidelines)
• Guest authorship: The “author” is included even
though they make no contributions but are included
because the person is well known and may increase
the chance of publication and/or prestige
• Honorary or gift authorship: Included as an author
based on a minimum association with a study.
• Ghost authorship: An individual who may actually
contribute to the research and/or development of the
paper but is not included as an author or in the
Acknowledgments.
Deciding on Authorship
• Early in the process discuss
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Who should be an author on this manuscript?
What contribution will each author make?
Who is the first/senior author?
What should the order of authorship be?
• Revisit this process during and just before
submission
– Changes may be made based on what actually
occurred during the writing process
• Talk with your faculty mentor/advisor
Peer Review
• What is peer
review?
• Critical to science
• For journals, it’s the
evaluation of
manuscripts by experts
in the same field in
order to maintain the
quality of scholarship
Why do we do peer
review?
•To help the Editor make a
decision on acceptability
•To help the authors
effectively communicate
their work
Manuscripts “Journey”
1. Submit to the Editor
2. Editor reviews, then
3. Sent to ~3 reviewers
•
Guidelines provided
4. Reviews are returned to Editor
5. Editor makes decision
6. Reviews and decision are sent to the
Corresponding Author
– Rejected, decide on an alternate Journal
– Revisions, respond--> back to the Editor
– Accept, Publication!
Peer Review
• Significant professional responsibility
– Must recuse self if not qualified
– Must report conflicts of interest
– Must provide review by a specific date
• Must be impartial
– Must not be mean! (i.e. constructive criticism)
• Maintaining confidentiality is critical
• Authors response
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Respond to all comments
Be nice-it’s not a rebuttal!
Typically must respond within a certain time period
Consult with co-authors
Research Misconduct
• Office of Research Integrity, US Dept of
Health & Human Services
http://www.ori.dhhs.gov/misconduct/definition_miscon
duct.shtml
• Research misconduct means fabrication,
falsification, or plagiarism in proposing,
performing, or reviewing research, or in
reporting research results.
Definitions
• (a) Fabrication is making up data or results and
recording or reporting them.
• (b) Falsification is manipulating research materials,
equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting
data or results such that the research is not
accurately represented in the research record.
• (c) Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person's
ideas, processes, results, or words without giving
appropriate credit.
• (d) Research misconduct does not include honest
error or differences of opinion.
• Intentional vs unintentional
– But you’re responsible for both
University of Iowa
Operations Manual
• Chapter 27.6 ETHICS IN RESEARCH.
• a. Prevention of research fraud. Academic
research fraud entails more than mere error;
it generally involves falsification or fabrication
of data, plagiarism, or grossly negligent data
collection or analysis.
Have you ever participated in any type of
plagiarism or academic misconduct? (e.g.
copying homework,
cut and paste, cheating
on an exam)
50%
50%
text...
1. YES
2. NO
1
2
Research Misconduct
• Why is research misconduct not
acceptable?
– May infuse false information into a discipline
– May harm individuals relying on that information
– May hurt the individual scholars development and
credibility
– May result in breaking the public’s trust in
research
Examples of Plagiarism
• Sources not cited
– “The Ghost Writer”
• Turns in another’s
work as own
– “The Potluck Paper”
• Tries to disguise by
copying from several
sources
– “The Self-Stealer”
• “borrows” from own
work (self plagiarism)
• Sources cited
– “The Misinformer”
• Provides inaccurate
information regarding
source
– “The Too-Perfect
Paraphrase”
• Cites sources, but
does not use
quotations for wordfor-word sections
plagiarism.org
Why does intentional plagiarism occur?
• Pressure to
produce/publish
• Other reasons??
Excuses Offered for Plagiarism
• “In the place where I trained, this is done all the
time”
• “Their words are better—I could never write as
well.”
• “I wanted my proposal to be the best that it could
be.”
• “I didn’t know that we weren’t allowed to do this.”
• “I only copied a few lines.”
Factors Contributing to Plagiarism
• Sometimes naive writing skills
• Not knowing how to paraphrase
– Not knowing how to synthesize information
– Not knowing how to reference appropriately
• Different cultural expectations
• Ease of cutting and pasting from a variety
of sources
Plagiarism Resources
Resources that may help you
– University Librarians
– The University Writing Center
Rm 110 English Philosophy Building, 335-0188
– Websites such as
http://www.plagiarism.org/
http://plagiarismtest.org/student.html
– Your advisor!
Identifying Plagiarism
Increasingly easy with software
– http://www.iparadigms.com
– http://Ithenticate.com
– http://turnitin.com
• Departments have software
• Even google and google scholar
These can help you too!