Q: I want to know if there is any international contact point to report research misconduct.
I am a faculty member at Shinshu University and I am always grateful for your help in English editing.
Today I emailed you because I want to know if there is any international contact point to report research misconduct.
Actually, there is a suspicion that the head of the research group to which I belong has made an inappropriate authorship in my paper. Therefore, I want it judged by an international third party.
If you know any contact point to report such a situation, please let me know. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. If your manuscript is already submitted, you should contact the editor-in-chief of the journal. As per COPE guidelines, Editors must take all allegations of misconduct seriously and are required to look into the case. If there is any evidence of misconduct, the editors may need to inform the accused author’s employer who will then start an internal investigation if needed.
If you have not yet submitted to the journal, you can consider approaching your University’s ethics committee directly. You can also try contacting The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) to see if your case can be processed. The Office of Research Integrity oversees and directs U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) research integrity activities on behalf of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This includes oversight of research misconduct inquiries and investigations, as well as of institutional compliance.
We wish you good luck, and hope that this issue is resolved as soon as possible.
This content belongs to the Conducting Research Stage