Research Integrity
Federal and state sponsors of research require that all faculty, staff, and students engaged in sponsored research be informed regularly about campus policies on research integrity. The Department of Physics expects that all members of its community maintain the highest standards of ethical conduct in all aspects of its research, education, and public service missions.
The University-wide procedures for addressing particular instances of unethical conduct in research and publication are stated in the Policy and Procedures on Academic Integrity in Research and Publication. Under this policy, all members of the University community are expected to observe high standards of academic integrity and ethical behavior in research and publication. Any practice or conduct by a member of the University community that seriously deviates from those ethical standards for proposing, conducting, and publishing research that are commonly accepted within the professional community constitutes academic misconduct in violation of University policy.
Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to:
- Fabrication or falsification of data, including reporting of credentials or other academically related information that is intentionally misleading, selective, or deliberately false.
- Unacknowledged appropriation of the work of others, including plagiarism, the abuse of confidentiality with respect to unpublished materials, or misappropriation of physical materials
- Intentional failure to comply with research regulations or requirements, including but not limited to those applying to human subjects, laboratory animals, new drugs, radioactive materials, genetically altered organisms, and to safety.
- Other conduct that seriously deviates from accepted ethical standards in scholarship.
Differences of interpretation or judgment or honest error do not constitute academic misconduct.
A student or faculty member who believes that academic misconduct has occurred has several options for pursuing the matter informally. Most such problems can and should be resolved without resort to formal procedures, but rather through consultation with an adviser, department or unit head, or the campus Research Standards Officer, Howard Guenther, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. If you have questions about this policy, please contact Professor Guenther at 217.333.0030.
The campus's official statement "Responsible Professional Conduct: Guidelines for Teaching, Research, and Service" is printed in the Academic Staff Handbook and in the Handbook for Graduate Students and Advisers.
The American Physical Society has also formulated guidelines for professional conduct.
