Responsible Conduct of Research – Research Integrity in Law

What is ‘salami-slicing’ and is it acceptable?

The Office of Research Integrity's Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research (which is referred to in Section 2 of the HKU Policy on Research Integrity) explains the phenomenon commonly known as 'salami-slicing' as follows: "Salami publication (sometimes called bologna or trivial publication) is the practice of dividing one significant piece of research into a number of small experiments (least publishable units or LPUs), simply to increase the number of publications. This practice may distort the value of the work by increasing the number of studies

Categories: Honesty, Principles of Research Integrity, Publication-related Conduct, Responsible Conduct of Research|Tags: Academics, Overlapping publications, Salami-slicing|

Interviewing vulnerable people – a University of Sheffield case study

The following is an extract from an article by Professor Jerry Wellington of the University of Sheffield in February 2014 (with emphasis added): Interviewing Vulnerable People in a Funded Evaluation This scenario is designed to present two ethical dilemmas which can occur during fieldwork: can researchers always produce the 'hard data' required by funding bodies? And can interviewers draw a line between a research interview and a counselling session? I was asked to be part of a research team to evaluate a National project aimed

Categories: Care and Safety, Case Studies, Duty of Care, Principles of Research Integrity, Responsible Conduct of Research|Tags: Academics, Duty of care, Research participants, Students, Vulnerable people|

Responsibility towards research participants: HKU and other policies

When conducting research involving human participants, it is important to carry out the research in a manner that respects the dignity of the human participants. This is particularly relevant for those conducting empirical legal research, as well as research in the area of behavioural law and economics. HKU Policy on Research Integrity ('Principles of Research Integrity', Section 1): All researchers have a duty to care for the human participants ... under study. HKU Policy on Research Integrity ('Responsible conduct of research', Section 2.1): The

Categories: Care and Safety, Duty of Care, Policies, Principles of Research Integrity, Responsible Conduct of Research|Tags: Academics, Duty of care, Research participants, Students|