What is research misconduct?
The Office of Research Integrity, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, defines research misconduct as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.
- Fabrication is making up data or results and recording or reporting them.
- 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.
- Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.
- Research misconduct does not include honest error or differences of opinion.
Avoiding research misconduct
Researchers are encouraged to conduct research ethically. All UCSC personnel can educate themselves on responsible conduct by completing Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training, which discusses ways to avoid misconduct.
Reporting research misconduct
Initial inquiries can be brought to Csilla Csaplar at csilla@ucsc.edu. All reports of suspected misconduct will be forwarded to the Research Integrity Officer John MacMillan at jomacmil@ucsc.edu.