Research and publishing ethics and integrity

Ethics and integrity are important issues in research and publishing. In research and publishing ethical and integrity issues are faced at several different levels. These include institutional ethics, professional ethics, publisher ethics, and personal ethics. These are all embedded in different national rules relating to ethics, e.g., privacy legislation, as well as different research cultures. This chapter helps authors consider some of the ethical and integrity issues that they face in seeking to get their work published. It first provides context with respect to the notion of ethics creep and the regulatory scope of ethics before detailing macro-, i.e., general and critical ethical questions, and micro-ethical issues, i.e., institutional ethics requirements. The chapter then goes on to discuss publishing ethics, research culture, and sanctionable and aspirational values and norms, including with respect to falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism and authorship. The chapter concludes with some recommendations about the importance of ethics in publishing.