Research Compliance

Integrity In Scholarship and Scientific Research

Integrity in research is the basis for the academic search for knowledge. Persons involved in academic research must guard the truth and protect the public trust that research in an academic environment has long held. Activities which interfere with an honest search for the truth cannot be tolerated in a university setting. All effort must be made to maintain an open and honest search for truth through continual commitment by faculty, staff, and students to scrupulous honesty and integrity in research.

Policy Statement

In the belief that honesty and integrity are essential to the search for knowledge, it is the policy of Coastal Carolina University that all persons involved in research and scholarship must guard the truth, uphold the highest standards in their research and scholarship, and protect the public trust that the academic environment has long held. Whenever any Coastal faculty member, graduate student, or other research employee is accused of serious misconduct in scientific or scholarly research, the University will conduct an inquiry, make a determination concerning the truth or falsity of the allegations, and take appropriate disciplinary action. The process of inquiry will be expeditious and protect the rights of all those concerned, including the complainant and the accused.

Policies regarding Faculty Misconduct and Greivances can be found in both the Faculty Manual and the University Policies and Procedures Manual. Policies regarding student misconduct can be found in the Student Handbook.

Definition of Research Misconduct

Since the search for knowledge is impeded and subverted by the misrepresentation of facts, openness and honesty are commonly accepted norms within the scientific and scholarly community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research. "Research misconduct" means plagiarism, falsification, fabrication of data, or other forms of deliberate misrepresentation. It does not include honest error or honest differences in interpretations or judgments of data.