Ethics in research and publication of research articles

Abstract

Science aims at promoting knowledge by gathering and discovering the objective truth, the facts that are independent of human interests, their values, ideology and biases. The way in which scientists come to this goal is through the universally accepted and thoroughly regulated processes – the scientific method. There is no clear definition which will answer the question what is unethical in biomedical research. All people recognize some common ethical norms but different individuals interpret, apply, and balance these norms in different ways in light of their own values and life experiences. Generally, it can be said that unethical behaviour in science is any significant mistreatment of intellectual property or participation of other parties, deliberately hampering the research process or distortion of scientific evidence, as well as all the behaviours that affect the integrity of scientific practice. Given the importance of the primary goal of scientific enterprise, that is search for truth and trustworthy results, ethics in science has increasingly come into focus. There are several reasons why it is important to adhere to ethical norms in research. Norms promote the aims of research, such as knowledge and truth, variety of moral and social values and help to build public support for research. This paper analyzes the major principles of ethical conduct in science and closely related topics on ghost authorship, conflict of interest, co-authorship assignment, redundant/repetitive and duplicate publications. Furthermore, the paper provides an insight into the fabrication and falsification of data, as the most common forms of scientific fraud.

Keywords

• conflict of interest
• ethics
• fabrication and falsification of data
• ghost authorship
• publication
• redundant and duplicate publication
• research