INSTITUTIONAL CODE OF ETHICS FOR RESEARCH

Research at the Sibar Institute of Dental Sciences takes place according to the accountability and academic excellence. All research work follows certain professional frame work, ethical, legal and standards. The code of ethics for research defines the principles and process for the objectives and ethical reviews. The code of ethics applies to all research principal investigators such as faculty and students and those visiting our institution for the purpose of research.

PURPOSE OF CODE OF ETHICS

  • It helps undergraduates and postgraduates, interns, faculty or research scholars to follow standard guidelines by legal and ethical principles.
  • It is their responsibility to ensure that research work is conducted according to institutional policies and values.
  • The good research practices are based on fundamental principles such as reliability, honesty, respect and accountability.

THE CODE OF ETHICS FOR RESEARCH IS DISCUSSED IN THE FOLLOWING HEADINGS

  • RESEARCH PROTOCOL
  • RESEARCH ATMOSPHERE
  • TRAINING AND MONITORING
  • PRECAUTIONS
  • DATA PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
  • PUBLICATIONS AND INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
  • REVIEWING AND EVALUATING RESEARCH WORK

RESEARCH PROTOCOL

The Research Protocol or Procedures has to be followed as follows

  • The researcher/principal investigator has to submit their synopsis or proposal of interested work to the Institutional Research Committee followed by Institutional Ethics Committee. If applying for research grants, the principal investigator has to submit synopsis to funding agencies. If they are doing any clinical studies they have to register their research proposal to Clinical Trial Registry of India.
  • The researcher/principal investigator has to design their research work along with research documents in well considered manner.
  • Researcher using grants from funding agencies have to make judicious and conscientious.
  • Researcher should be honest and transparent with their work and respect confidentiality of data such as identification of the subjects who participated in the study.
  • After compilation of their study if the researcher would like to publish the results, it should be compatible with standards of the

RESEARCH ATMOSPHERE

  • Disseminate the culture of research integrity.
  • Show leadership in providing clear policies and steps on good clinical research practice and it should be transparent.
  • Provide support with good infrastructure in the institution and research material in all forms such as steps or protocols, quantitative and qualitative data and other research material.
  • Promotes research activities by acknowledging and appreciating the researcher with identification and rewards.

TRAINING AND MONITORING

  • Provide the researcher with training in research designing, materials and methodology, analysis using statistical software and data handling.
  • Provide training in ethics and research integrity and make sure that all concerned are made aware of the relevant code of research regulations.
  • All the researchers from undergraduate’s to faculty should undergo training programmes in ethics and research integrity.
  • Leader of the research (Guide) has to monitor their research team members and provide specific guidelines, should send the junior researchers for training to update their skills in research.

PRECAUTIONS

  • Principal investigator and associates with research projects should maintain code of ethics and regulations related with their
  • Researcher should handle human subjects, animals, biological samples, cultures with respect and utmost care in accordance with legal and ethical provisions.
  • Research should have utmost regards for the health, safety of individuals participating, collaborators and other subjects who involved directly or indirectly to research projects.
  • Research protocols take consideration with age, gender, their culture, religion and origin and socioeconomic class.
  • Researcher should identify or recognise and manage potential harms and risk related to their research.

DATA PRACTICE MANAGEMENT

  • Researchers should appropriately protect all the data and material used for research work including unpublished data for reasonable period.
  • Researchers should make sure that the data will be availed with findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable for data management.
  • Researchers should provide all the data and research material to access to institute.
  • Researchers and other organizations such as institutions should have a reciprocal acceptance for data and appropriate products of research.
  • Researchers should ensure that agreement related with research including equitable and provision for the management of their use, authorship and protect their intellectual property rights.

PUBLICATIONS AND INFORMATION DISSEMINATION

  • All principal investigators and co-investigators should fully responsible for the content of a publication.
  • Both principal investigators and co-investigators should agree on the specific order of authorship. This is based on significant contribution towards the designing of the project, data collection, analysis and interpretation of the results.
  • Authors should make sure that their work should be transparent and access to other colleagues on time, unless otherwise agreed.
  • Authors should be honest in their work to communicate to the general public and in social media.
  • Both principal investigators and co-investigators should disclose any conflicts of interest and financial and other type of support for research or for the publication of work or its results.
  • Principal investigators and co-investigators should consider even if negative results to be as valid as positive findings for publication and knowledge dissemination.
  • Researchers should stick on with same criteria as those detailed mentioned above whether publish in a journal such as open access journals or PubMed indexed journals or any other publication platform.

REVIEWING AND EVALUATING RESEARCH WORK

  • Both principal investigator and co-investigator should be serious towards their dedication towards research community by participating in refereeing, reviewing and evaluation.
  • All the research work should be evaluated and reviewed by both principal investigator and co-investigator before submitting for publication, funding agency and reward in a transparent and justifiable manner.
  • All the reviewers and editors should maintain confidentiality unless there is prior disclosure.
  • All the reviewers and editor should respect the rights of authors and should obtain permission to make use of the work, data and methodology and interpretations presented in the project.

COLLABORATIVE WORK

  • All the research collaboration should take responsibility for the honesty and integrity of the research.
  • All the research collaborators should accept at the outset on the research outcome and process for communicating their research transparently as much as possible.
  • Institutional and funding agency formally agree at the start of their collaboration on standard research integrity, on the laws and regulations that will apply.
  • Protection of intellectual property of the collaboration and handling conflict of interest and possible cases of misconducts.
  • All partners in research projects should be informed and take consent about submission for publication of the results obtained after research work.

VIOLATING OF RESEARCH INTEGRITY is very important aspect in researchers; the knowledge and ethical practices associated with research work. If the researcher does not follow good ethical research practice that shows violating the professional responsibilities. It affects the research atmosphere, degrades the relationship between researchers and other associates. It may also affect the resources and may expose research subjects, society or the environment causing harmful for research work.

 RESEARCH MISCONDUCT explains as fabrication, falsification and plagiarism, it may affect the performing or review research.

  • Unwanted and making up results and including data as they are real called as Fabrication. This may alter the results and knowledge about their work.
  • Manipulating the research materials, equipment or steps of methodology or avoiding some steps in research protocol or suppressing or alternating the data without justification come under
  • Plagiarism is using someone work, idea or data showing as original data or sources violating code of ethics for research. This may violate the rights of authors or co-authors to their intellectual rights.
  • Manipulating authorship in other research publication. Republishing part of their study without acknowledging or citing the original work.
  • Researchers allowing funding agencies in the research process or reporting of results so as to introduce or promotes bias.
  • Hampering other researchers work inappropriate.
  • Misusing seniority to encourage violations of research integrity.

           According to National guidelines for ethics explained about how to handle allegation of misconduct or violation of good research practice. Interest of society and research community that violations are handled in a consistent and transparency fashion. Integrity and transparency can be included to handle the violation and misconduct.

 Integrity: The principal investigator should be fair, comprehensive and conduct without compromising accuracy, objectivity or thoroughness. Those involved in their project work have to declare any conflict of interest, which can be given during the project work. Materials and methodology should maintain confidentiality in order to protect their involvement.

 Transparency: Investigators of any investigation or project should be fair to both institution and funding agency. Investigator accused of research misconduct should have full details of the allegation and fair process for responding to allegation and presenting evidence. Action is taken against research. Whoever has an allegation of misconduct will be uphold for their work in research and consider as violating code of ethics and necessary action is taken against investigator. Any investigator of research misconduct is assuming innocent until proven otherwise.

INFORMED CONSENT

It is a communication between the investigator and the participants regarding the project. The principal investigator or co-investigator should comply with the applicable regulations required and they should adhere to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and to the ethical principles that have their origin in the declaration of Helsinki regulations. The principal investigators or co-investigators should inform the participants, if the participants are unable to accept to participate in research work. All the participants should accept the trail, including the written information and the approval from Institutional Review Board or Institutional Ethics Committee.

PLAGIARISM IN RESEARCH

The main aim of plagiarism is to maintain integrity of research. Plagiarism not only does the ethical satisfaction but also maintains the scientific integrity. Plagiarism or any form of research misconduct is unethical which includes fabrication, falsification and even self plagiarism is not acceptable in research or in publications. Ethical research practice leads to more attention to the details of quantitative and qualitative knowledge along with statistical analysis with more thoughtful collaboration among research fraternity. Misconduct word defines as serious professional deviation that is subjected to sanctions imposed both by the institution level and university levels. If any misconduct of research happens, matter should be discussed on a confidential basis with another colleague or institutional ethics committee chairperson or member secretary.

Plagiarism is taking information from others without giving proper acknowledgement. According to European code of ethics “Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person idea, process, results or words without giving appropriate credit”. It explains that someone deliberately taking information or work, idea or materials. If there is a word copying beyond six or seven words of some text, it will be considered as plagiarism. As rule will be applicable in research grant writing or any clinical research work and also students submitting for academic purpose such as publication or presentation. If the work of others should be cited or acknowledge whether it is published as article in any journal, materials from website should be mentioned in appropriate citation. If the component taken from text books or case of phrases which describe as common methodology. There are special rules which have been developed for taking information from electronics. Misconducting of research may affect research integrity which requires not only concluded information or data which was presented should be reported with relevant information. Large negative results must be reported. Any violation regarding this may be considered to be act of research misconduct.

Ownership and data access is very important aspect in plagiarism. Studies taken place in an institution by any faculty or undergraduate or postgraduate students are not the property of the researcher who formed this research work or even principal investigator of the research group. If principal investigator belongs to institution, it’s employee solo responsible for the integrity of the data; even he or she left the institution because of any other reasons. If the institution claiming of ownership then the research data belongs to the institution, not to the individual researcher.

Copyright is intellectual property of investigator and all co-investigators also have to sign the copyright form. If the researcher applying for patent that should be registered through institution with patent office. If the principal investigator who leaves the institution he / she can make copy of the data to take to another institution, so that he / she can continue with their research work. In some cases they can take original data with written agreement between principal investigator and institutional head to make them available in the institution for stated time period. Each co-investigator or student should come to an understanding with principal investigator preferably in written format about which portion of the research work he/she will be continued in other institution. Other type of exchanging the data will be facilitation of individual confirmation of outcome of their research project work. It is acceptable that the data which is going for publication should be made available to other co-investigators. Authorship in scientific publication is very important aspect which means of communicating to the researcher that readers may inform research results and other investigator can build-up on reporting data. If the project was sponsored by some commercial product may not have a right over decision to publish, but a delay of publication for an agreed period but not for more than six months, may be allowed in order to facilitating the patent application.

Criteria for authorship is very important in academic work are informed by sources offering concepts and information. It is very important and rightful acknowledgment in the presentation or in publication of manuscript. The authorship should strictly adherent to those worked and had significant contribution, designing the project, execution and interpretation for that particular project work. The people or individuals who have made small contribution in that project work like giving advice, providing subject material should also be acknowledged in the manuscript but it depends upon principal investigator, who can include as author in their manuscript. Sometimes, written permission has to be obtained for acknowledgment in the scientific publication. The principal author submitting their work in scientific journal, the principal investigator responsible to coordinate with other co-investigator and complete their work and ensure that contributions and all the contributors should get proper acknowledgement.

All the co-authors have to approve final manuscript and should be preparing to accept responsibilities for their work against the project entitled. Author and co-authors are responsible to complete the work, revision and verification of manuscript, publication or presentation their work in scientific platform representing he / her contribution. All the co-authors should make own copies of manuscript and related documents as their personal reference. It is inappropriate and unacceptable to submit same work more than one publisher. Corresponding author should be senior designated in every manuscript that corresponding author should be responsible for communicating with the publisher or editor and also role of corresponding author is communicating between co-authors and editor. Whatever information regarding manuscript should be informed to co-authors.

Researchers should not publish the same work or article in two different journals that may lead to duplication of publication. This may be same for abstract publishing in journals that will be considered as duplication of research work if the work is not citation, this may be referred as self plagiarism.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Those working as faculty or research scholars in institution may not allow other non professional members. They should maintain a significant professional presence on campus during the entire period of their work. The person who is working in their project should create an atmosphere of academic freedom by promoting their time with academic activities and discussion with students and colleagues is not influenced by personal interest. Researcher can use resources from institution including facilities provided in institution, equipment’s and all the information should be maintained confidential. Researchers should not use resources in the institution for other purposes such as using the equipment for other purposes without prior information or permission obtained by the Institutional Dean or Head of the Department and these activities should not be against department or institutional regulations. Researchers may encourage or allowed to do professional activities such as consulting scientific advisory board but they have to obtain approval from the Director/Dean.

The entire research work team should be aware about standards and integrity of the grant application and proposal before submission for publication. Reporting the results without performing the research work is considered as fabrication to funding agency that will be considered as misconduct of research, even if they submit for funding agencies that may be rejected. In such projects they are considered as plagiarism. The principal investigator must submit their progression and report to sponsor in specifics time. The principal investigator should give agreement with commercial sponsor of research.