What are the ethical standards to be followed in writing related literature? There are three broad issues that need to be considered when completing research report and transmitting results. These ethical standards to be followed are as follows:
Plagiarism is an act of claiming another’s work or copying a portion of someone else’s writing. If copying another researcher’s ideas cannot be avoided, proper citation must be done. In most universities, plagiarism is a breach of the student code of conduct and can result in failure of the course subject or even expulsion from the institution. To avoid such coi,,;equences, care and adequate referencing must be observed in writing any academic or research documents.
Self-plagiarism is defined when the researchers reuse their own work or data in a ‘new’ written product without letting the readers know that the manuscript already appeared in another literature. The available literature on self-plagiarism concerns with major problems such as publishing what is substantially the same paper in more than one research journal without any indication that it has been published already, or dividing an extensive study that should have been reported in a single paper into smaller published researches. The practice of text recycling and copyright infringement are also included.
For researchers who want their papers to be published in conventional journals, the usual agreement is for the copyright of the researcher’s work to be transferred to the publisher of that journal. In this case, the publisher of the journal can reproduce and distribute the research legally. However, most journals nowadays maintain the researcher’s ownership of their work, but both parties agreed on the journal’s right to publish and reuse the manuscript. In case of ‘Open Access’ journals, the researchers agree to allow free dissemination of one’s work without their permission.
