The creation and dissemination of knowledge is a primary mission of the University of Oregon. Truthfulness and integrity are fundamental to this community of scholars and students.
Scholars must be able to trust their peers, students must be able to trust their teachers, and citizens must be able to trust the integrity of the results of research performed in institutions of higher education. Citizens must also be able to have confidence that university researchers are using public funds in a responsible and productive manner.
Federal regulations encourage ethical research practices, provide a mechanism to address allegations of research misconduct, and also protect the rights of those making the allegations, those against whom an allegation is made, and university officials.
Research misconduct means fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.
- Fabrication (making up data or results and recording or reporting them)
- Falsification (manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record)
- Plagiarism (the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit)
Serious or continuing non-compliance with government regulations pertaining to research may constitute misconduct. Research misconduct does not include honest error or honest differences in the interpretation or judgment of data.
The University has an Allegations of Research Misconduct policy describing the procedures to be followed in investigating allegations of misconduct in research.
Allegations of Research Misconduct may be reported to the University of Oregon’s Research Integrity Officer (RIO). The RIO at the UO is currently Sheryl Johnson, Director of Research Compliance Services (sherylj@uoregon.edu).