Scientific misconduct and breach of publication ethics

Abstract

Journals occasionally receive notification or allegations of scientific misconduct or breach of publication ethics. Sparked by recent high profile cases, institutions receiving federal funds must have investigatory policies and procedures to deal with faculty scientific misconduct.1–3⇓⇓ Journals, editors, and editorial boards are not investigational bodies. As stated by Stephen P. Lock, Editor Emeritus of the British Medical Journal , at a 1990 Office of Scientific Integrity Workshop: “We are the JCI (referring to the Journal of Clinical Investigation ), not the FBI.” Scientific misconduct includes “fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism,” and requires an “intent to deceive” by the authors.3 The AMA Manual of Style4 defines each of those terms, and separates out “omission” (defined as not presenting information that results in a distortion of truth) from the fabrication category. Honest error or differences in interpretation are not …