If there is a common thread to any article or commentary on the state of research integrity and publishing ethics among the global scholarly community, it is usually that there is a need for more education. If only PhD students had better teaching on research integrity issues, and early career scholars more formal instruction on publishing norms, then we would not have the slew of integrity issues we seem to be facing. The problem is that it is always easy to call for more education, like it’s some tap you can turn on or off, but much more difficult to deliver.
In that vein, any book that purports to provide a primer on the key issues of research integrity is welcome, and as such, a new volume from Springer seeks to do just that. Introduction to Research Ethics and Academic Integrity, by Amani Khalil Abu-Shaheen, Muaawia Ahmed Hamza, and Sumayyia Marar (eds.), is intended to, according to the blurb on the back, “provide(s) an overview of conducting ethical and rigorous research with an emphasis on key topics, including informed consent, confidentiality, and conflicts of interest.”
Case studies
There are some really positive aspects of this book that are unfortunately outweighed by a number of major flaws. On the plus side, the layout and coverage are accessible, and some of the background information in early chapters on the nature of authorship, publications, and an excellent framework on responsible scholarship offer a good grounding for early career scholars reading the book.
By far the best feature is saved until the end, where the final chapters offer perspectives on how culture impacts integrity and authorship concerns, looking at these through a number of important lenses such as technology, collaborations, policy, and reporting. Usefully, these perspectives are also summarised in a table for ease of reference and comparison.
The final chapter brings seven different case studies which cover many of the areas touched on in the book, with conundrums for readers to consider concerning plagiarism, self-citation, and fabricated data, among other things. There is also a case on predatory journals, which, like the other cases, has the benefit of being a real-world example, but offers only very brief answers to the problem posed.
Huge letdown
These positives are, however, let down by some very poor editing by the publisher, and some major holes on behalf of the editors and individual chapter authors. Particularly in the early chapters, there are glaring errors that have been let through the publishing process, such as links that have been included by authors that have been left as “http…” where a reference should be. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and missed capitals abound – all in a book which retails for £108.99 in the UK (about US$145).
Some of the nice touches in the book also show up where it misses the mark. A Glossary at the back of the book is useful, but it is thin and misses many useful definitions and terms referred to in the book. The chapter on predatory publishing also includes many misses, such as any sort of attempt at defining what it is, any background explaining the role Open Access played in its development, or any solutions put forward to mitigate against the problem.
Similarly, the chapter on plagiarism doesn’t offer any depth on its development or trace attempts to curtail it, nor does it engage with the most recent new and interesting phase termed ‘post-plagiarism’, where the use and misuse of AI is taken into consideration. This lack of engagement with the more challenging, cutting-edge issues surrounding research ethics and academic integrity means that while the book offers a useful foundation in these topics, it fails to rise above much more than this.
