Publication Ethics

Dr. Aman Ullah

B.Sc. MLT
Ph.D. Microbiology
 FABRICATION OF RESULTS
(Invention of data/ Cooking data)

O The actual making up of research data and (the

intent of) publishing them.

O Making up progress notes of patient visits that

never took place and inserting them in the medical records

O Preparing records for calls and follow up contacts

for
participants who already died
 FALSIFICATION OF RESULTS
(Willful distortion of data/Altering truthful
information)

O Manipulation of research data & processes in order to reflect

or prevent a certain result

O Substituting one subject’s record for that of another subject

O Altering dates and results from subject’s eligibility visits

O Backdating test or interview dates to fit protocol

time window
 PLAGIARISM

O Taking over the ideas, methods, or written words of another,

without acknowledgment and with the intention that they be
taken as the work of the deceiver.

O SELF PLAGIARISM -Problems

 Multiple submissions waste editor and reviewer
time

 The editorial process of your manuscripts will be

completely stopped if the duplicated submissions
are discovered

 DO NOT send your paper to a second journal until

you receive the final decision from the first
 REDUNDANT PUBLICATION

 An author should not submit for consideration

in another journal a previously published paper

 At the time of submission authors should

disclose details of related papers, even if in a
different language, and similar papers in press
 SALAMI SLICING/DATA FRAGMENTATION

 The partitioning of a large study which should have

been reported in a single paper into smaller
published studies

 Acceptable if different message to different

readership

 Unacceptable if degree of overlap is great

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 GHOST AUTHORSHIP

O Ghost authors may be employed (an expert is “hired”) to prepare

clinical trial results for publication to lend an air of credibility &
neutrality to manuscript.

O Difficult to detect & may be identified after investigation.

O May be used to mask conflicts of interest with industry.

 GIFT AUTHORSHIP

O Giving authorship to a person who is not

qualifying authorship criteria

O Very Common in our set up

 CONFLICT OF INTEREST?

 A person has a conflict of interest when he or she has an attribute that is

invisible to the reader or editor but which may affect his or her judgement.
Why does it matter?
 Because it may have a profound effect on somebody’s judgement.
 Because of the perception that a person’s judgement may be
affected-- whether it is or not
Problems with conflict of interest
 Should it be just financial, personal, academic, political, anything?
 People don’t declare it because
 a) it implies wickedness;

 b) they are confident that their judgement is not affected

The best policy on competing interest

 Always declare, particularly one that would embarrass you.
 Questions/Suggestions
khurramthalwi@hotmail.com