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CHAPTER 10

Academic Dishonesty and Scientific Misconduct

M.R. Yadav

Personal integrity is an important human attribute, which is significant in all spheres of life including
academics and research. However, it is not an inborn quality in human beings. Personal integrity
needs to be inculcated from childhood and then slowly nurtured as a child grows. And it is not only
to be inculcated and nurtured but it has to be practiced constantly in daily life. When we talk about
academic integrity, it is applicable equally to all the stakeholders of the academic field: students,
faculty, and academics administrators. But what do we understand by academic integrity? It is a
commitment to the five fundamental values, even in the face of adversity:

1. Honesty: The foundation of teaching, learning, research and the whole system. Making honest
efforts in all aspects of academics is the foundation of education system.
2. Trust: Interpersonal faith among the academia, students and the academic administrators.
3. Fairness: Fair treatment to each other is another component of integrity. Students expect fair
treatment from the faculty and the administration, while faculty expects fair treatment by the
students, colleagues and administration.
4. Respect: The faculty must give respect to the students by taking seriously their ideas and
feedback, valuing their aspirations and goals and recognizing them as responsible individuals.
On similar lines students should respect the verdict of the faculty in the class and the outcome
of the evaluation.

5. Responsibility: Present oneself in a responsible way in all aspects of academic activities despite
peer pressure, fear, loyalty or compassion.

Academic Integrity in Research

Academic Integrity means giving credit where the credit is due. While writing a research paper or
making a presentation/poster or website, we must acknowledge our sources of ideas or information.
We should express our ideas in our words demonstrating and sharing our personal perspectives. We
must duly acknowledge others’ work and contributions and give respect to the centre of learning and
others involved in the system. Academic integrity and academic/scientific dishonesty are interwoven
in the same way as truth and untruth. Academic dishonesty is an act of deception in which a person
seeks to claim credit for the work or efforts of another person, or uses unauthorized materials or
fabricated information in any academic work, including research. Research/scientific misconduct
means malpractices adopted by the researchers that seriously deviate from actions that are commonly
accepted within the scientific community for “proposing, recording, or reporting” research. Research
misconduct basically involves three aberrations: fabrication, falsification and plagiarism.
• Fabrication means making up or cooking up data or results without performing due
experiments and reporting them in presentations/publications. Fabricated results are not based
on the actual authentic data.
• Falsification means the experiments are performed but the outcome of the experimentation
is manipulated. It is manipulation of research materials, equipment, processes, and modifying

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