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SETU Waterford offers a broad range of academic programmes from levels 6 to 10 on the national framework of qualifications across Business, Education, Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities, Science and Computing.

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SETU Waterford offers a broad range of academic programmes from levels 6 to 10 on the national framework of qualifications across Business, Education, Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities, Science and Computing.

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The Office for International Relations co-ordinates the admission, administration and support for international students throughout the course of their studies at SETU Waterford.

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SETU Waterfordis recognised as the leading research performer in the institute of technology sector with research activities that are internationally benchmarked, strategic, and economically relevant. Find out about the amazing multi disciplinary research under way

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What is Research Misconduct?

Fabrication of data: making up results and recording or reporting them when they are known to be false.

Falsification of data: 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, including those obtained through confidential review of others' research proposals and manuscripts (as defined in the National Policy Statement on Ensuring Research Integrity in Ireland, 2019).

Selectively excluding data from analysis and deliberate misinterpreting data to obtain desired results, including inappropriate use of statistical methods also constitutes misconduct.  Doctoring images in publications or producing false data or results under pressure from a sponsor or a collaborator is also a very serious matter.

Framework to Enhance Research Integrity in Research Collaborations

A new document, for the Framework to Enhance Research Integrity in Research Collaborations, is designed to help researchers reinforce a culture of responsible conduct of research (research integrity) in their research collaborations, so they can, as far as possible, avoid incidences of serious research misconduct and unacceptable research practices occurring during the collaborative work. The IUA and THEA developed this document in the awareness that collaboration is central to research and innovation, and that increasingly, researchers work together and with a wide range of external stakeholders to deliver outcomes that expand the boundaries of human knowledge and have the potential to deliver real benefits for today’s rapidly developing society. 

A copy of the document can be accessed online

Unacceptable research practice

While fabrication, falsification and plagiarism are very serious issues, other poor research practices may lead to questions around the integrity of research and impact on the reputation of the researcher, the research team or the university.  A combination of poor practice and repeated issues in maintaining data integrity may constitute research misconduct.  

The practices include the following and are not confined to:

Research procedures; Misconduct relating to research procedures may include harmful or dangerous research methods, poor research design including experimental and computational errors.  Other poor research procedures include the violation of human subject protocols and/or failure to protect human subjects from harm and the abuse or mistreatment of laboratory animals.

Data-related practices; This includes poor practices in preserving the primary data for the specified period, poor data management including the storage and sharing of research data and failure to destroy data timely or appropriately. Withholding data from the scientific community also constitutes data related misconduct. 

Publication-related practices; This includes the claiming of undeserved authorship, denying authorship to contributors, including authors without permission and artificially proliferating publications. Failure to correct the publication record is also research misconduct. 

Personal behaviours; This includes significant deficiencies in supervision of the next generation of researchers and scholars, inappropriate personal behaviour in any form, harassment or insensitivity to social or cultural norms.

Financial and other misconduct; Misconduct may result from the non-disclosure of conflicts of interest, peer review abuse, misrepresenting credentials or publication record, misuse or research funds and/or for personal gain or making up a false, malicious or unsubstantiated misconduct allegations. 

Research Integrity Training

SETU Waterford is part of a National consortium providing online access to Research Integrity Training modules through the UK training provider Epigeum. There are 8 online interactive module featuring two core modules and 5 specialist modules. Each module is independent and certified.   

Core Modules

  • Good Research Conduct (Core Module 1)
  • Irresponsible Research Practices (Core Module 2)
  • Planning Your Research
  • Managing and Recording Your Research
  • Data Selection, Analysis and Presentation
  • Scholarly Publication
  • Professional Responsibilities
  • Communication, Social Responsibility and Impact

We generally advise that Core modules 1 and 2 are conducted as a basic minimum by those with some prior research integrity training such as experienced Principal Investigators and those with greater than 3 years of full-time postgraduate research experience. The standard programme is recommended for all postgraduate and PhD students, early-career researchers, those with limited research experience of less than 3 years’ postgraduate and those who have not conducted any research integrity training in the past. We also recommend research integrity training for all research supervisors, research collaborators, research administrators and managers. Research integrity training forms part of a Universal Pathways module on Research Integrity and Ethics and is a compulsory 5 ECTS credit module for all taught PhD programmes since 2018.

Research Integrity Training versions

Training is tailored to suit specific research interests and fields including Biomedical Sciences, Natural and Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Social and Behavioural Sciences and Arts and Humanities.  When prompted preselection can be made to suit the desired area of interest.

This course makes references to Irish legislation and policies and is relevant to the Irish legislative environment.  There are a number of short specialist courses that can be accessed in addition to core modules. This provides additional training for those working in specialist fields. 

Specialist modules

  • Conflicts of Interest
  • Research Involving Human Participants
  • The Care and Use of Animals in Research
  • Intellectual Property
  • Export Controls

 

Research Integrity training as a requirement for research funding

Irish and European Funding Agencies have indicated that completion of research integrity training will become an eligibility condition to hold an award and when applying for future funding.  Research Integrity promotional plans are a requirement in the application process for some European grants.  Research Integrity training is also a requirement when applying for Institutional ethical approval.

To register your interest in availing of Research Integrity Training, please complete the form via this link »