National Innovation and Research Conduct/Misconduct

Innovation is a big part of national development but often isn't given the attention it deserves. Creating as many pathways to vetting good ideas and putting them to use to improve the nation is an important thing. The countries that can do that and funnel good ideas are likely to be more successful in the long run. Much of that innovation comes from research and we should be on guard for research misconduct ane/or misrepresentation least we stiffle long term growth for short term gain. Ranging from misrepresentation to fabrication of results most universities have something similar but I found this one at Harvard Research Misconduct Definition. You can read a little something on Measuring Research Misconduct. 

Let me add that in research it is best to make no promises, minimize potential impact, and never misrepresent the data. Also recognizing limitations can be helpful of what is and isn't being studied. Because you cannot go in with anything but a research hypothesis you should be indifferent to the results. A positive result teaches you something and a negative result teaches you something. It is hard to share good feedback to the scientific community if they are false, misleading or even attributed incorrectly. 

To build the strongest nation we can we need to develop our innovative and R&D pipelines. Promoting research and development is important for the development of our nation (Promoting R&D Govt. Role). New ideas can radically change our environment and influence our institutions to become more effective and efficient. Research has shown that innovation influences not only GDP but also institutional frameworks, infrastructure, knowledge, technology and more. A Global Review: Innovation and GDP

You can read about Research Misconduct in a statement from the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy which indicates, “fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.” They utilize terms like fabrication of data, falsification of method, equipment, etc. and plagiarism as taking someones ideas, processes, results, etc. without giving proper credit. 

In a publish or perish world there is also likely some influence on trying to get things done in order to look good for promotion. For some achievement is an external validation affair. This is also why I appreciate people who do things for the greater good and not necessarily for themselves or to artificially inflate their sense of self importance. Motivation is less on promotion and more on contribution. Good researchers have ethical beliefs and want to build a better world with their results so putting the right people in the right positions is helpful. Common reasons inclued pressure to publish, competition, career advacement, lack of supervision, ethical knowledge, and poor culture. Reasons for Misconduct. 

We also get back to that values and what is right and what is wrong. If you were a researcher and you invented something (or many things) and did years of work and once something looks like it has value you start finding someone claiming work they didn't do, trying to take over your ideas because they can advance themselves from it, claim the outcomes even though they were not involved, or giving away attribution in a way that doesn't represent invention and contribution accurately then you may have an issue. Good scientiests are internally driven and once you take a way theose internal incentives things change. While researchers certainly deserve external rewards more often then not its its the internal satisfactions that leads to the greatest discoveries and to the loss of those great discoveries (a relative term). Thus, the entire nation suffers because the process of innovation can be cut short by short sightedness of bottlenecks. Lines of development don't come forward and the fruit of innovation dies on the vine. We want to be innovative but without looking at improving the innovative pipleline from top to bottom and encouraging integrity then we won't compete (U.S. Loosing Innovation). However, I think with commitment to R&D and innovation through human capital development in an ethical way we can ensure competitive advantages for decades to come. Yes...ethics matters!

Dempere, Juan & Qamar, Muhammad & Allam, Hesham & Malik, Sabir. (2023). The Impact of Innovation on Economic Growth, Foreign Direct Investment, and Self-Employment: A Global Perspective. Economies. 11. 182. 10.3390/economies11070182.

National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering (US) and Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research: Third Edition. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2009. RESEARCH MISCONDUCT. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK214564/