Zigmund and Fisher developed a schema in which they distinguish between high crimes and misdemeanors in scientific research. Their focus lays with the misdemeanors, because they believe that misdemeanors within scientific research are the things scientist struggle with the most. In addition, misdemeanors can gradually inflict great harm to the scientific community. Plus, they set the stage for far greater crimes.
High crimes within scientific research are fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. Fabrication is the act in which data, that was never collected, is being published. In other words, scientists devise/make up their own data. Falsification is the act in which data is being altered/changed. Plagiarism is the act in which work of others is being stolen. This involves using someone else's ideas, methods, or data without proper attribution to the original author. Consequently, the willingness to share ideas or the ability to build on the observations of others diminishes. With that, these high crimes weaken the scientific community. The benefits usually gained through cooperation between scientist slowly disappear.
Misdemeanors are little crimes and are less obvious than high crimes. But both are seen as irresponsible behavior regarding scientific research with equally damaging effects. Inattention to misdemeanors sends the wrong message about the value of responsible research and it leaves researchers to keep engaging in these little crimes. Let's consider a few of the misdemeanors involved in writing scientific articles regarding...
The obligation to publish: As a scientist, publishing your research is an important part of conducting research. But it is important not to publish too much. Misdemeanors occur when researchers divide their research into micro reports with the purpose of inflating ones curriculum vita ('salami slicing' approach). Others use the same data in more than one publication.
Citation practices: Authors have the obligation to not just cite articles (or else you're committing plagiarism), but also to
Cite the original article: This ensures that the person responsible for the discovery gets proper credit. It is wrong to cite a later article containing the discovery.
Have read the article they've cited: The article needs to support the point to which a researcher is referring. Simply copying citations from other articles, without reading the articles, leads to errors in the literature.
Cite papers that do not support your hypothesis along with those that do.
The adequacy of methods: In science, methods are usually not tested/checked prior to publication. Consequently, inadequate descriptions of methods can be published: critical information might be missing or incorrect. This can be the result of carelessness or maliciousness. In case of the later, information is intentionally left out.
The presentation of results: The Results section is the place where fabrication, falsification, and misdemeanors most likely occur. Misdemeanors regarding results leads to readers being misled.
Clarity: The article must be presented in a way that is easy to understand. A misdemeanor occurs when a researchers' poor writing skills leads to misinterpretation of the meaning, which means that readers are being misled.
While misdemeanors aren't as irresponsible or problematic as high crimes, the accumulation of misdemeanors can lead to an equally toxic effect on the system.
It should be obligated to provide researchers with instructions about responsible behavior in research, including information about high crimes along with misdemeanors. In addition, scientists must hold a particular high level of responsible behavior, because the knowledge they obtain can have great effects for our community. If the scientific community fails to do so, the danger arises that others might take on this behavior.
