Research Ethics

What is research ethics?

What is research integrity?

  • Effort to secure the credibility of research by using data accurately and by using honest and valid research methods in conducting research and deriving results.

Core principles of research integrity

  • Objectivity - Avoiding specific influences that may affect the researcher's performance and motives that may induce undue bias.
  • Honesty - Honest delivery of research materials and data throughout the entire research process
  • Fairness - Unaffected by personal acquaintances or interests in allocating research resources and evaluating research achievements, etc.
  • Accuracy - Reporting research results accurately and avoiding errors
  • Openness - Sharing data and results through research

Roles and responsibilities of a researcher

"Guidelines for Ensuring Research Ethics" (Ministry of Education, Ordinance No. 263)

  • Respecting the personal dignity of research subjects and fair treatment
  • Protecting the personal information and privacy of research subjects
  • Executing honest and transparent research based on facts
  • Maintaining academic integrity as an expert when sharing professional knowledge to society
  • Contributing to the advancement of science by disclosing new academic results
  • Recognizing and respecting the achievements of prior researchers, such as stating the source in an appropriate way when using the work of one's own or by others
  • Upholding ethical responsibilities in the process of signing research agreements, receiving research grants, and executing them
  • Remaining unaffected by the interests of institutions funding the research, and specifying all interests related to the research in the research results
  • Clearly identifying the researcher's affiliation and position (author information) to bolster the reliability of the research when presenting research results
  • Participating in continued research ethics education

Research Misconduct

What is research misconduct?

  • Refers to counterfeiting, falsification, plagiarism, and unfair authorship of research that directly impedes the integrity of research results in its proposal, implementation, and presentation.

Scope of Research Misconduct

Article 12 of the "Guidelines for Securing Research Ethics," Article 10 of the "Kyungpook National University Research Integrity Committee Regulations“

  • Counterfeit : Falsely creating, recording, or reporting nonexistent research data, research materials, research results, etc.
  • Falsification : Distorting research content or results by intentionally manipulating research materials, equipment, processes, etc., or by arbitrarily modifying or deleting original research data or research materials
  • Plagiarism : Making a third party perceive outputs as one's own creation by using another person's original idea or creation without acknowledging the appropriate source
  • Obstructing investigations on research misconduct : Any act of intentionally obstructing the investigation of one's own or others' misconduct, the act of harming the informant
  • Unfair duplicate posting : Receiving research grants or obtaining unfair benefits, such as recognition as a research achievement upon publishing a work that is identical or substantially similar to the results of his/her previous research without acknowledging the source
  • Invalid author acknowledgment : Failing to attribute authorship to a person who has contributed to the research content or results without justifiable reasons, or attributing authorship to a person who has not contributed to the authorship of the research content or results as a sign of appreciation or courtesy

Relevant Laws and Guidelines