Kongu Arts and Science College (Autonomous) - Erode
Code of Ethics
in Research
Cultivating a culture of uncompromising academic honesty, transparency, and scientific rigor. Ensuring all research at Kongu Arts and Science College adheres to national standards and strict ethical conduct.
Ethics Charter
Autonomous Governance Framework
Scientific Honesty
Accurate reporting & zero data falsification.
Plagiarism Checks
Pre-submission verification for manuscripts.
IPR Compliance
Protecting patents, copyrights & authors.
Subject Care
Human rights & animal testing ethics.
Code of Ethics
Ethical pursuit of research is vital for the accomplishment of research objectives. It is maintained that, the researchers should at all times pursue research in a right way thus invariably assuring the dignity of the institute. The code of ethics augments to create awareness on ethical conduct of research, promotion of academic integrity and prevention of misconduct including plagiarism in academic writing among students, faculty and research scholars.
Objectives
- To provide a general framework for enhancing research integrity by focusing on potential threats and good practice at each stage in the research cycle.
- To ensure that worthy ethical standards are followed in conduct of research.
- To continuously improve the existing systems to prevent and check malpractices, research misconduct and plagiarism in research.
Institutional Responsibilities
Excellence in research is a fundamental concept that every institution fosters and supports. The institution implements research governance via its formulated research policy.
Research Advisory Committee is constituted to co-ordinate with the research activities of the college. It conducts training programmes to support career development and continuously improves the existing systems to detect and prevent malpractices thereby promoting academic integrity.
The institution provides the required infrastructure support and resources. Ethics Committee reviews research proposals to ensure that they agree with local and international ethical guidelines. They also monitor studies once they begin and if necessary may take part in follow-up actions after the end of the research.
Role of Research Supervisors
The relationship between the Research Supervisors and Scholars is both personal and professional in which trust plays an important role. A good Research Supervisor is always a good leader because he can understand the aspirations of the candidates and educate them properly, thus, can lead them in a more effective way. Hence, developing supervision skills is very important for effective leadership.
Research leaders take on a number of roles, rights, and responsibilities—as scientific leaders, financial administrators and mentors. They engage with their scholars in preparing research projects, make them aware of ethical research practices, and help them comply with ethical and intellectual property regulations. They guide scholars on institutional rules and provide academic advice throughout candidature and beyond.
Code of Ethics for Research Scholars
The term ‘good research practice’ describes the expected norms of professional behaviour of researchers. Since research often involves a great deal of cooperation and coordination among many different people in different disciplines and institutions, ethical standards promote values that are essential for collaborative work. Upholding ethical principles are important for research and following are the values required for research scholars.
Honesty
Researchers must strive for honesty in all scientific communications. They must honestly report data, results, methods and procedures, and publication status and should not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data.
Ethics
Research has to be conducted in an ethical manner ensuring dignity, rights, safety, and privacy within the researcher ecosystem.
Objectivity
Objectivity and lack of bias are the core principles of research. Researchers must strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, grant writing, and expert testimony.
Integrity
Researchers must keep their promises and agreements; act with sincerity; strive for consistency of thought and action across all research engagements.
Intellectual Property
Honor patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property. A researcher must not use unpublished data, methods, or results without permission, give proper credit for all contributions, and never plagiarize.
Animal Care
Show proper respect and care for animals when using them in research. A researcher must not conduct unnecessary or poorly designed animal experiments.
Human Subjects Protection
When conducting research on human subjects, minimize harms and risks, maximize benefits, and respect human dignity, privacy, autonomy while taking special precautions with vulnerable populations.
Accountability
Researchers must take responsibility for their part in research and be prepared to give a full, transparent account of what they did on a research project and why.
Assistance for Research Funding
To apply for grants and securing research funding is an essential part of conducting research. To be able to secure a research grant is a matter of prestige for a researcher and it also helps in the advancement of career. Funding Development Cell (FDC) aims to nurture getting funds from recognized government and non-government research funding organizations by promoting research in newly emerging and challenging areas of Science, Arts and Humanities.
Most funding agencies expect the applicant to carry out some preliminary research work before applying for projects. Moreover funds needed for research are not easily available. Faculty who are at their early stages of career find it difficult to get funds for their projects. So there exists a need to support the preliminary research work which would grow into a sizeable research project that would be submitted to an external funding agency later. Considering these aspects, the College Management provides Seed Money Grant Scheme for faculty to assist in their initial phase of their research work and facilitate them to prepare a formal research proposal for funding in later stages.
Ethical Norms for Publications
Publication of scientific papers is critical for modern science evolution and professional advancement. However, it comes with many responsibilities. An author must be aware of good publication practices. Publication ethics are rules of conduct generally agreed upon when publishing results of scientific research or other scholarly work. Generally it is a standard that protects intellectual property and forbids the re-publication of another's work without proper credit.
The scientific publication is a team effort. The language in which the manuscript has been drafted is important and should be checked by an expert or senior authors. Clear and concise language helps editors and reviewers concentrate on content.
- The order of authorship must be mutually decided before taking up the study as a joint decision.
- Appropriate funding statements and conflict of interest declarations must be clearly stated.
- Final manuscript must be approved by all authors and copyright transfer form signed before journal submission.
Research Misconduct
Research Misconduct can be characterised as actions or questionable research practices that fall short of the standards of ethics, research and scholarship required to ensure that the integrity of research is upheld. It can cause harm to people and the environment, waste resources, undermines the research record and damages the credibility of research.
The institution views any research misconduct very seriously. When reported, prompt and appropriate investigation and disciplinary actions are undertaken as per defined guidelines.
Institutional Commitment
Research ethics focuses on the moral principles that researchers must follow in their respective fields of research. It provides guidelines for the responsible conduct of research and educates and monitors researchers conducting research to ensure a high ethical standard. The institution mandates its faculty and research scholars to adhere to the highest standards of truthfulness in carrying out academic research.