Introduction:
In the academic world, a man without academic ethics is not a reliable entity. It is because ethics is one of the most important academic research skills. You cannot get meaningful success in your research without knowing how to behave ethically while doing any academic work. It is imperative to know that any unethical conduct can destroy your research’s integrity and credibility. Therefore, it is vital to understand all the ethical implications you could face if you do any ethical misconduct while doing academic research. To help you, we have discussed significant ethical implications in academic research below.
Why do Ethics Matter in academic research?
Ethical decision-making is very crucial in academic research. The main focus of any academic research is providing maximum learning advantages to its participants. Following are the ethical principles that are important to maintaining the integrity of research:
- Ensure you remain honest with your sponsors and colleagues throughout your research.
- It would help if you avoided bias in all stages of research.
- You need to maintain consistency in actions and thoughts.
- It would help if you remained open to new ideas and criticism in your research
- Must reflect accountability and transparency in your research.
- You need to protect all confidential information.
- You should encourage social responsibility in your study
- It would be best if you avoided discrimination.
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Different types of academic misconduct in research:
Following are some important misconduct that you need to avoid:
Fraudulent or misleading behaviour:
Dishonest behaviour means lying or misleading acts. It includes any misrepresentation, falsification or fabrication. Following are the examples of dishonest behaviour that you need to take into account while considering the ethical implications of such misconduct:
- Writing false information to get some benefit in your research
- Omitting important information that can result in distorting or misrepresenting findings
- Giving false information so that you will be excused for a class, task or assignment
- Accusing someone falsely
- Giving false information about yourself on some form or application
- Take credit for someone else’s work
Tampering:
Tampering means to alternate or remove equipment, software, academic-related documents, other students’ work or college documents such as reference materials, official forms and library books. A person with good academic research skills knows that tampering is cheating and must be avoided. Following are some examples of tampering in academic research:
- Tearing some pages from an article from the library
- Sabotaging intentionally work of another student
- Altering college documents such as a letter of recommendation and academic transcript
- Changing the file, data or report of another student electronically
Copyright Violations:
Good academic research skills also include avoiding using unauthorized copyrighted material such as some non-print media and software. Sometimes people might copy a section of a book or article for their use, and under the doctrine of fair use, it can have serious ethical implications. Examples of copyright violations are:
- Distributing or making copies of an article
- Using a video or image of a person without his permission
- Copying a small section from a book
Ethical Implications:
Following are the ethical implications of academic misconduct in your research:
Low grades:
Any ethical misconduct in academic research can lead to low grades in college. For instance, you cannot someone else work without giving proper references and credit to the author. If your instructor finds out, it will impact your grades no matter how good your academic research skills are. Therefore, knowing the ethical implications of academic misconduct before doing any academic research is important.
Failure:
Sometimes instructor does more than reduce grades for ethical misconduct. Instructors can fail you in your research work for academic misconduct. This means that academic ethics are very important for your academic career. Failing any course in college can high threaten your academic career. Therefore, it would be best for you to show good ethical conduct during your research. Before submitting your research, ensure you have given proper citation and bibliography.
Expulsion:
Unethical work can lead to many illegal activities. For instance, you cannot put false information in your research results. You could be caught in a case of fraud. You will have to face a suspension or even permanent expulsion from your college. Thus, all the ethical codes are crucial to protect your academic career and improve your academic research skills.
Impact on reputation:
Ethical conduct can highly influence your academic reputation. A person who follows all academic codes will have much greater respect than someone who does not. It is because academic ethics are taken very seriously in the academic world. Any allegation regarding your research can easily destroy your research credibility.
Influence on Personal life:
Doing any unethical conduct in your research can also influence your personal life. It can impact your position in academia. This will hamper you from learning academic research skills. You could have less advantage over other students because of destroyed reputation and mistrust. Your teachers and peers will put less confidence in you and may not prefer to work with you.
Legal repercussions:
There are many legal implications that you might have to face in ethical misconduct. Copywriting laws are very strict. Avoiding academic ethics can lead to the violation of copywriting laws and many other writing laws. For instance, if you use some else material without his permission, then that person can sue you for violating copywriting laws. In the past few years, the writer has faced legal issues regarding ethical misconduct in research.
Conclusion:
You cannot achieve your research goal without manifesting ethical behaviour in your research. Building trust and credibility is crucial to making your research successful in academia. Avoiding this can lead to many severe ethical repercussions. Therefore, take some time to learn academic ethics to improve your academic research skills.
