Breaking off the Science Misconduct; Responsibilities of the International Associations

Dear Editor-in-ChiefFew months ago, Dr Poorolajal et al. published a comprehensive article in Iranian J Publ Health entitled "Construction of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Questionnaire for Assessing Plagiar-ism". They had established a questionnaire as a standard tool in order to evaluate perception of subjects concerning plagiarism and to estimate the prevalence and the type of plagiarism commission (1). Although these types of standardization are extremely imperative but we would like to empha-sis toward inevitability of international specialized academic regulations against science misconduct.Development through honestlyIn recent years, developing countries have made substantial progress in the basic and clinical sciences. These advancements are mainly due to the scientists and researchers who conducted lead-ing edge studies and published their results in reputable acclaimed journals. Numerous universi-ties have become established and subsequently been accredited as research universities with the apex status. The speed of scientific growth has been spectacular and has received the attention of from senior academic officials from all over the world.Concurrently, countries are attempting to present their country's academic institutions as an es-teemed destination for higher learning of foreign graduate students in particular and are working to establish good academic policies to that end. As the number of students in postgraduate and graduate programs increase, the countries will up-surge their body of medical research, as a require-ment of their graduation is to publish papers in academic journals. This debauched development may face several opportunities as well as abundant threats.Call for quality control assuranceGenerally, publications can be considered aca-demic products and like every other product, these bodies of work require some measure of ap-propriate quality control assurance. There are al-ways some impediments in the path of progress. Although most researchers are typically truthful and knowledgeable people, there appears to be a small number of people who are predisposed to take advantage of the burgeoning academic body. Therefore, it is necessary to develop strategic and unambiguous strategies and procedures to deal with academic scientific misconduct, fraud and plagiarism in research.The role of ethics is universally an important issue but even more so in the context of research and publication. Human nature is such that it is tempt-ing to cheat to earn academic acclaim, but the bot-tom line is that any degree of fraud in research is unacceptable. Science misconduct can be a diffi-cult crime to prove and even trickier to punish hence the general notion that departments and institutions take up the gauntlet for monitoring and controlling these kinds of crimes (2, 3).When conducting studies, scientists must ensure they are acting in the patient's best interest and that research they participate in is ethically con-ducted. Both physicians and scientists alike should be well aware of the rules and ethics governing research and publication, and each scientific endeavor must be reviewed and endorsed by the appropriate supervisory bodies (4).Think globally, act locallyThe World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and the Committee on Publication Eth-ics (COPE), as general international regulatory bodies, have issued clear guidelines regarding scientific misconduct especially in the field of bio-medical sciences as had the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI) and the other national agencies. …