Research Integrity

Research Integrity vs. Publication Ethics

These two policies work together but focus on different things.

1. Principles of Research Integrity

• Honesty

  Research should be reported accurately.

• Transparency

  Methods, limitations, funding, and relevant relationships should be disclosed appropriately.

• Accountability

  Researchers should take responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of their work.

• Reproducibility

  Where appropriate, sufficient methodological information should be provided to allow research to be evaluated or, where relevant, repeated.

• Respect

  Research involving people, animals, communities, or sensitive data should follow appropriate ethical standards.

2. Research Misconduct

Research misconduct may include serious violations of accepted research practices, such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, deliberate manipulation of research materials, or serious misrepresentation of research findings.

Not every mistake is misconduct. PenScholar distinguishes between an honest error — a genuine mistake made without intent to deceive — and deliberate or reckless misconduct. Intent, pattern, and context matter, and allegations require appropriate assessment and supporting evidence before any editorial action is taken.

3. Fabrication and Falsification

Fabrication

Making up research data, observations, participants, results, experiments, or other research information and presenting them as genuine.

Falsification

Manipulating research materials, methods, data, images, or results so that the research record no longer accurately represents what was actually conducted or observed. Not every statistical mistake is falsification — intent and context matter.

4. Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication

Plagiarism involves presenting another person’s work, ideas, words, data, or other intellectual contributions without appropriate attribution — including text, ideas, data, and image plagiarism, and improper attribution more generally. Not every similarity score proves plagiarism; context and proper citation matter.

Authors should also avoid duplicate or redundant publication of substantially overlapping research without appropriate disclosure, including undisclosed overlap and simultaneous submission. Legitimate conference abstracts and preprints are not automatically treated as unethical.

Author Guidelines

5. Authorship and Contributions

Authorship should reflect meaningful scholarly contribution to the research and its reporting. This includes who qualifies as an author, transparency about individual contributions, corresponding author responsibility, and author order where relevant. Ghost authorship (an uncredited contributor) and guest or honorary authorship (crediting someone without a meaningful contribution) are inconsistent with responsible authorship practice.

Changes to Authorship

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission may require the agreement of the relevant authors and editorial review. The specific process is confirmed as part of each journal’s editorial workflow.

6. Data and Image Integrity

Research data should be collected, processed, analyzed, and reported accurately. Where a journal requests a data availability statement, authors should explain whether supporting data are available, where they can be accessed, and — where relevant — why they cannot be shared publicly. PenScholar does not require authors to publish sensitive personal data, and legitimate ethical, legal, confidentiality, or contractual restrictions on data sharing are recognized.

Image and Figure Integrity

Images and figures should not be altered in ways that misrepresent research findings — for example, selective alteration, removing relevant data, adding misleading elements, or unreported manipulation of scientific imagery. Ordinary, transparent image processing used in standard figure preparation is not restricted by this policy.

7. Research Ethics and Conflicts of Interest

Research involving human participants, animals, sensitive populations, or sensitive data may require appropriate ethical oversight, such as ethics committee approval, institutional review, informed consent, and — where applicable — animal welfare standards. Requirements vary by discipline and jurisdiction, and PenScholar does not itself approve research ethics.

Authors, editors, and reviewers should also disclose relationships or interests that could reasonably be seen to influence the research or its evaluation, such as financial relationships, employment, consultancy, funding, or personal relationships. Not every relationship automatically constitutes a conflict.

Research Involving Human Participants   Conflicts of Interest

8. Funding and Transparency

Authors should disclose relevant research funding, including the funder’s name, grant number, and the funder’s role in the research where applicable. Funding does not automatically compromise research integrity — transparency about it is what matters.

Funding Disclosure

9. Artificial Intelligence and Research Integrity

AI tools can create research integrity risks when used to generate fabricated data, invent citations, create misleading images, produce unverifiable claims, conceal authorship or contribution, or manipulate research findings. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy and integrity of their work regardless of what tools were used to help produce it.

This policy does not automatically prohibit all AI-assisted writing, nor does it automatically permit all AI use. There is an important distinction between AI as assistance and AI replacing an author’s research or authorship responsibility for accuracy, originality, citations, data integrity, and ethical compliance.

Citation Integrity

References must be accurate, relevant, verifiable, and properly attributed. AI-generated citations must be independently checked by the author before submission — fabricated references are not permitted.

AI & Generative AI Policy

10. Reporting a Research Integrity Concern

If you have a concern about the integrity of published or submitted research — such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, authorship manipulation, data manipulation, ethical approval concerns, or duplicate publication — provide enough information for the editorial team to understand the concern: the article title, DOI, and journal where applicable, the nature of the concern, any supporting evidence, and relevant dates.

PenScholar may assess the concern, request additional information, contact authors or editors, seek institutional clarification, or consult appropriate experts, and take editorial action where warranted. Serious matters may require involvement from author institutions, research integrity offices, or funding bodies. Concerns are handled with appropriate confidentiality where possible, though PenScholar cannot guarantee absolute anonymity or a specific outcome or investigation timeline.

Report a Concern

11. Corrections, Retractions & Appeals

Where a research integrity concern leads to editorial action, PenScholar aims to keep the scholarly record clear rather than silently altering it — corrections, retractions, and editorial notices remain linked to the original publication where appropriate, and are not treated as punitive measures.

The mechanics of corrections and retractions are described in full in the Corrections & Retractions policy; complaints and appeals are described in the Complaints & Appeals policy.

Corrections & Retractions   Complaints & Appeals

12. Responsibilities

For Readers and the Research Community

Readers and researchers may report credible, evidence-based concerns about published research. Harassment, personal attacks, and unsupported or bad-faith accusations are not an appropriate way to raise a concern.

13. Contact

Research integrity works alongside PenScholar’s Publication Ethics policy. Authors preparing a submission should also review the Author Guidelines.

Contact PenScholar