Search Page

Curtin University implicated in unethical research using facial recognition technology to identify Uyghur and Tibetan minorities has lobbied unsuccessfully for the publishers to retract it on several occasions. An internal review of research by a resigned professor at the university found that he breached several ethical codes, including failing to obtain informed consent and approval. The article remains online although Curtin University deputy vice-chancellor has urged the publisher to remove all references to the university.

A research team from the Canadian University of Dubai has identified a new approach to combating academic integrity using machine learning techniques. The new method applies an algorithm to identify cases of cheating through post-exam analysis of student grades from quizzes, midterm exams, and the final exam of an entire class. This technique can complement the work of commercial plagiarism detection software and provide a deterrent and non-intrusive alternative to remotely proctored exams.

A Statistics Canada study shows that one-third of women and nearly a quarter of men who teach and conduct research in Canadian university and college campuses face harassment. Data collected in late 2019 from 27,000 respondents about their experiences over the past year revealed five types of harassment: verbal abuse, humiliating behaviour, threats such as blackmail, threats to career or reputation, physical threats, physical violence, and unwanted sexual attention or sexual harassment.

A recent 2021 study shows that academics from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries accounted for 17 of the top 20 countries where academics publish in predatory journals. The OIC’s share of global publications has increased to over 8% in 2018. Standards have been compromised in relation to the impact of the number of published papers and citations on staffing, promotions, careers, and benefits.

The thesis of the former German minister for family affairs was found to contain nearly 70 passages violating good academic practice. The Free University of Berlin required the minister to return the PhD certificate within one month after notification of the withdrawal of the degree, acquired through “deceit regarding independent academic achievement”.

Two Ho Chi Min City university academics have lost their positions after they were found plagiarising content from an international peer-reviewed journal. They confessed that for one of their published articles, they had translated 80% of the original article without getting the author’s permission or citing his work as the source.

A recent study warns policy-makers in developing countries about the poor quality of research evaluation. The findings show the infiltration of journals suspected of predatory practices into the citation database Scopus. 324 journals that appear both in Beall’s lists and on Scopus and 164,000 articles published from 2015-17 were identified. As a result, the Scopus Content Selection and Advisory Board removed underperforming journals.

Almost 200 of 900 PhD thesis submitted at Osmania University every year have plagiarized content up 50 per cent. The university reinforced the regulations after approving the University Grants Commissions’ promotion of academic integrity. Faculty members having a similarity of above 40 per cent will be asked to withdraw the manuscript, will be denied the right to annual increments, and will not be allowed to supervise new thesis for 2 to 3 years students.

There have been several cases of ethical violations in India in recent years. A well-known newspaper reported that a series of articles belonging to prestigious research institutions have been published by Indian scientists. They were flagged on a research discussion platform for including images that had been altered and copied from other sources. However, some improvement in ethics has been noted. The government's Chief Scientific Adviser issued the Draft National University Ethics Policy in July 2019, which addresses issues such as plagiarism, data manipulation, and harassment. In December 2019, the UGC made a two-credit course on ethics mandatory as part of undergraduate courses in India.

A researcher accused of making false statements about his employment in China while working at universities in the US has been charged for illegally using $4 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health to develop China's expertise in the areas of rheumatology and immunology. The FBI arrested another Cleveland Clinic researcher working on molecular medicine and a University of Arkansas scientist doing research for NASA. They were accused of committing fraud by concealing their participation in Chinese talent-recruitment programs while accepting Federal grants.