In an effort to stop growing trend of plagiarism, falsification, misreporting, denying authors credit for their work and gift authorship, researchers, social scientists and journalists have agreed to set up a national network to fight the problem by launching a scientific ethics drive.
Plagiarism, falsification, misreporting, denying authors credit for their work and gift authorship (in which non-authors gain credit for the work) were preventing the country from turning its indigenous science to economic benefits.
Participants at ‘The Conduct of Responsible Science: Safety, Security and Ethics’ – a meeting held in Islamabad, unanimously agreed to create a multidisciplinary national network to promote and strengthen the responsible conduct of science.
To begin with, such a network may take the shape of an online social network, so that more and more like-minded people may join it easily,” said Abid Azhar, co-director of the Dr. A. Q. Khan Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering.
“Then, it can be transformed into a national organization with regional chapters and broad-based participation.”
Ultimately, this network is likely to investigate any alleged misconduct. It is planned to establish this network with-in 6 months from now.
Via SciDev
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