Misconduct Investigations Research Articles

디지털 증거 수집과 위법수집증거배제법칙 적용

There is a view that when the exclusionary rule was clarified, it should be automatically and mandatorily excluded from evidence if there is an offense by investigative agencies. I think this is due to the trauma of illegal investigations that have historically existed in Korea, but the benefits to criminals from minor misconduct by investigative agencies are too great. In fact, in South Korea, there are cases where evidence is excluded even when there is evidence of harm or guilt, as a deterrent effect to curb misconduct, making it difficult for victims to seek redress.
 The exclusionary rule has certainly contributed to the transparency of investigative practices, as law enforcement agencies are more careful in their investigations. However, quasi-appeals and other administrative or civil sanctions can be sufficient deterrents to illegal investigations. As Japan's theory of relative exclusion shows, it is necessary to use relative and discretionary exclusion rather than mandatory and absolute exclusion in terms of the gravity of the offense and the deterrence of illegal investigations. This is especially true in areas where the standards are not yet clear, such as digital evidence.
 Minor misconduct investigations, especially for digital evidence, are often committed by investigators without recognizing the legality or illegality of the violation. Investigators need to be educated, especially if they have never dealt with cyber crime and only occasionally encounter digital evidence.
 Just as the responsibility of intent and negligence is differentiated in substantive law, it should not be judged only by the result of a criminal investigation without judgment of intent and negligence in procedural law. Guidelines for search and seizure of digital evidence should be established, educated and publicized to law enforcement agencies. Evidence should not be excluded because it is an illegal investigation, without agreement on the appropriate process, in a vague state, and without providing criteria.

Research Misconduct Investigations in China's Science Funding System.

As stewards of public money, government funding agencies have the obligation and responsibility to uphold the integrity of funded research. Despite an increasing amount of empirical studies examining research-related misconduct, a majority of these studies focus on retracted publications. How agencies spot funding-relevant wrongdoing and what sanctions the offenders face remain largely unexplored. This is particularly true for public funding agencies in emerging science powers. To amend this oversight, we retrieved and analyzed all publicized investigation results from China's largest basic research funding agency over the period from 2005 to 2021. Our findings reveal that both the "police patrol" and "fire alarm" approaches are used to identify misconduct and deter funding-related fraud in China. The principal triggers for investigations are journal article retractions, whistleblowing, and plagiarism detection software. Among the six funding-related misconduct types publicized and punished, the top three are: (1) fraudulent papers, (2) information fabrication and/or falsification in the research proposal, and (3) proposal plagiarism. The most common administrative sanctions are debarment and reclamation of grants. This article argues that more systematic research and cooperation among stakeholders is needed to cultivate research integrity in emerging science powers like China. Specific training and education should be provided for young scientists to help them avoid the pitfall of academic misconduct.

Re‐evaluating online oral examinations

Re‐evaluating online oral examinations

The Impact of Civilian Investigative Agency Resources on the Timeliness of Police Misconduct Investigations

The Impact of Civilian Investigative Agency Resources on the Timeliness of Police Misconduct Investigations

Max Planck’s cherished autonomy questioned following criticism of misconduct investigations

Demoted archaeologist Nicole Boivin calls on the German government to oversee the prestigious research society — several other directors say that investigations into them lacked transparency. Demoted archaeologist Nicole Boivin calls on the German government to oversee the prestigious research society — several other directors say that investigations into them lacked transparency.

What Took You so Long? An Examination of Reporting Time and Police Misconduct Complaint Dispositions

ABSTRACT This study examines if and how the promptness of reporting internal and external police misconduct influences the disposition and discipline of misconduct investigations. Data were collected from one midwestern agency. In all, 306 allegations of police misconduct spanning 12 years were collected. In addition to promptness, this study controlled for relevant police officer, complaint, and evidentiary characteristics. Although the promptness of reporting police misconduct did not influence either the disposition or discipline of the investigation, the analyses uncovered several statistically significant relationships between the independent and dependent variables. Examining the disposition, a complaint was more likely to be sustained in interactions involving one officer. In addition, internal complaints of misconduct were more likely to be sustained than complaints filed by citizens. Investigations that did not have video recordings to review were more likely to result in a sustained complaint. Regarding discipline, results showed that interactions with one officer were less likely to yield serious discipline. This is the first study to examine whether promptness in reporting police officer misconduct influences the investigation of police misconduct.

Out of obscurity: The contemporary private investigator in Australia

The business of private investigation has grown significantly in the past two decades. No longer can private investigating be considered an obscure form of private policing. Yet, despite the recent growth of interest in private policing, little research has been conducted on the services provided by private investigators. This article presents the results of an analysis of 33 in-depth interviews with Australian private investigators in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The article discusses their contemporary role in the context of providing justice, public policing and future regulatory challenges. The article extends the limited research on the services private investigators provide, including corporate fraud and financial investigations, risk advisory, and cyber and misconduct investigations. It identifies their backgrounds and education, and describes their clients. The study found that, contrary to expectations, to meet these new services, private investigators are now highly qualified academically and professionally. It was found that regulatory gaps have been created in the licensing of contemporary private investigators, and the use of private investigators allows clients to sidestep the justice system.

Toward global standardization of conducting fair investigations of allegations of research misconduct

ABSTRACT In the United States, through nation-wide discussions, the procedures for handling allegations of research misconduct are now well established. Procedures are geared toward carefully treating both complainants and respondents fairly in accordance with the US framework. Other countries, which have their own cultural and legal framework, also need fair and legally compatible procedures for conducting investigations of allegations of research misconduct. Given the rapid growth of international collaboration in research, it is desirable to have a global standard, or common ground, for misconduct investigations. Institutions need clear guidance on important subjects such as what information should be included in the investigation reports, how the investigation committee should be organized once research misconduct allegation has been received, how to conduct the investigation, how the data and information obtained should be taken as evidence for vs. against misconduct, and what policies the investigation committee should follow. We explore these issues from the viewpoint of members of committees investigating accusations of research misconduct (hereafter referred to as “investigation committees”) as well as persons overseeing the committees in Japan. We hope to engender productive discussions among experts in misconduct investigations, leading to a formulation of international standards for such investigation.

What’s new copycat?

In Finland, all higher education institutions are committed to following a national policy to deal with suspected violations of good scientific practice. All suspicions of research misconduct are dealt with at the local level in the institution. If “the person alleged of misconduct or the instigator of the allegation” is dissatisfied with the decision, s/he may request a statement from the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (2012, 36). The system has been claimed to be unique in the world. The responsibility of research misconduct investigations being on local level has led to a situation where the rector of the institution is responsible of the decisions resulting in differencesin local decisions, processes and definitions of plagiarism (Moore 2019).
 The data for this conference paper consist of 13 statements requested from Finnish National Boardon Research Integrity. All requests of statements dealt with suspicions of plagiarism in students’ Master’s theses. Thematic content analysis is used to typify first the interpretations of plagiarism and the investigation processes in institutions. The main result is that plagiarism is defined or denied on the local level and there is no need to comply with national or international definitionsof plagiarism. The national guidelines can be interpreted in creative ways: administrative and legal rhetoric is used to state that a thesis older than two years is not to be investigated at all, the instigator of the suspicion is not a party in a plagiarism case and therefore documentation of the investigation process can be kept internal. Secondary source plagiarism can be seen as plagiarism,but it can also be accepted as normal thesis writing. The national guidelines are interpreted differently resulting in creative, diverse and unequal interpretations of plagiarism.

Understanding the benefits and risks of nursing students engaging with online social media.

E-professionalism is defined as the competence and values expected of professionals when engaged in online communication, and is a rapidly expanding area of nursing practice. The use of online social media is popular among nursing students, some of whom have created online platforms for peer support and influence. There are significant benefits of using social media for nursing students, such as developing professional networks, engaging in the nursing community, accessing and providing support, and enhancing their knowledge. However, nursing students must be made aware of the potential risks in relation to how they share information and communicate online. These risks include misconduct investigations and could result in exclusion from their studies, resulting in them being unable to join the professional register. Nursing students and educators should be supported to use digital technologies in a way that capitalises on their benefits, while minimising their risks. This article aims to enhance nursing students' and nurses' understanding of e-professionalism so that they can use social media effectively for peer support and to enhance patient care.

Police Union Contracts: An Analysis of Large Cities

Abstract The impact of police union contracts on administrators’ ability to hold their officers accountable is an understudied are of police accountability. While there is anecdotal evidence that some contracts contain provisions that could militate against accountability, and some scholarship has reviewed state Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights and found troublesome provisions, whether or not municipal police contracts routinely contain similar provisions is unknown. The research conducted herein is designed to address this knowledge gap. We review 47 contracts from some of the largest cities in the USA with a view towards finding provisions which could impede misconduct investigations, along with describing the frequency and contours of those provisions. Using directed content analysis, we find provisions across several domains of interest—including citizen complaints, police interrogations, disciplinary hearings, and police disciplinary records—within union contracts that could shield officers from accountability, and discuss their implications.

What universities can learn from one of science’s biggest frauds

Detailed analysis of misconduct investigations into huge research fraud suggests institutional probes aren’t rigorous enough. Detailed analysis of misconduct investigations into huge research fraud suggests institutional probes aren’t rigorous enough.

Complaints of police misconduct: Examining the timeliness and outcomes of internal affairs investigations

This study examined how characteristics of patrol officers and complaint cases influenced the timeliness of completing police misconduct investigations. Further, it analyzed how the timeliness of the investigation influenced the disposition and discipline of complaint investigations while controlling for relevant variables. Data were collected from a Midwestern municipal police agency for all formal complaints filed against patrol officers from 2006 to 2017. The analyses demonstrated that the nature of the complaint and number of police officers present on scene were two predictors of the timeliness of complaint investigations. This study also found that police officer and complaint characteristics were relevant predictors of the disposition and discipline outcomes of complaint investigations. Limitations and policy implications are discussed. This study contributes to the existing body of literature on complaints of police misconduct by introducing a new variable: timeliness of investigations.

Scientific misconduct and accountability in teams.

Increasing complexity and multidisciplinarity make collaboration essential for modern science. This, however, raises the question of how to assign accountability for scientific misconduct among larger teams of authors. Biomedical societies and science associations have put forward various sets of guidelines. Some state that all authors are jointly accountable for the integrity of the work. Others stipulate that authors are only accountable for their own contribution. Alternatively, there are guarantor type models that assign accountability to a single author. We contribute to this debate by analyzing the outcomes of 80 scientific misconduct investigations of biomedical scholars conducted by the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI). We show that the position of authors on the byline of 184 publications involved in misconduct cases correlates with responsibility for the misconduct. Based on a series of binary regression models, we show that first authors are 38% more likely to be responsible for scientific misconduct than authors listed in the middle of the byline (p<0.01). Corresponding authors are 14% more likely (p<0.05). These findings suggest that a guarantor-like model where first authors are ex-ante accountable for misconduct is highly likely to not miss catching the author responsible, while not afflicting too many bystanders.

French science behemoth launches research-integrity office

Europe’s largest basic-research agency, the CNRS, wants to improve how it tackles misconduct investigations. Europe’s largest basic-research agency, the CNRS, wants to improve how it tackles misconduct investigations.

UK universities fall short on reporting misconduct investigations

Parliamentary inquiry recommends creation of research integrity committee. Parliamentary inquiry recommends creation of research integrity committee.

Safety Culture in Financial Trading: An Analysis of Trading Misconduct Investigations

High-profile failures in financial trading have led to interest in how the culture of the industry produces risky and unethical behaviours among traders. Yet, there is no established theoretical framework for studying this: we apply safety culture theory to examine ten recent high-profile trading mishaps investigated by the UK financial regulator. The results show that the dimensions of safety culture (e.g. Management Commitment to Safety, Systems and procedures) used to understand organisational accidents in domains such as aviation also explain failures in Risk Management within financial trading organisations. This counters narratives focusing on traders who are unethical ‘rule breakers’, and emphasises the value of a systemic approach, whereby safety culture theory is used to explain why risky behaviours in financial trading occur. Safety culture therefore provides a conceptual basis for further research on risky and unethical behaviours in financial trading, alongside providing insights for possible intervention.

Curator resigns after sexual misconduct investigations.

Long-running case sparks debate about collaboration.

The Essential Need for Research Misconduct Allegation Audits.

Nearly 90 % of allegations of biomedical research misconduct in the United States are dismissed by responsible institutions without any faculty assessment or auditable record. Recently, members of the U.S. Congress have complained that the penalties for those against whom findings of research misconduct are made are too light and that too few grant funds associated with research misconduct have been recovered for use by other researchers and taxpayers. Here we discuss the laws that empower federal agencies that can oversee investigations of biomedical research misconduct: the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), both located within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Research misconduct investigations pertaining to U.S. physical sciences funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF) are overseen by the NSF’s OIG. While OIGs may provide some improvement over the ORI in the handling of research misconduct, we have found that a much more serious flaw exists which undermines an ability to conduct performance audits of the effectiveness by which allegations of research misconduct are handled in the United States. Specifically, sufficient data do not need to be retained by U.S. research institutions funded by HHS or NSF to allow effective audit of why allegations of research misconduct are dismissed before being seen by faculty inquiry or investigative committees. U.S. federal Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS/Yellow Book), if applied to the research misconduct oversight process, would allow a determination of whether the handling of allegations of biomedical research misconduct actually functions adequately, and if not, how it might be improved. In particular, we propose that independent, external peer review under GAGAS audit standards should be instituted without delay in assessing the performance of ORI, or any other similarly tasked federal agency, in handling allegations of research misconduct.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11948-016-9798-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Advanced Energy Materials Turns Five

Advanced Energy Materials Turns Five