Knowledge and Perception of Students towards Publication Ethics: A Comparative Study in Two Academic Settings

Abstract

Introduction: Publication ethics is a constant concern for academic and students alike as being an author has important academic, social, and financial implications. However, the perception of academics towards matters related to publication ethics is unclear and often a source of conflict.

Medical Students’ Knowledge about Research Ethics

“…However, one study found that receiving extra courses and trainings about research and it is ethics increase the students' knowledge about it significantly [5]. While other study did a comparison between two colleges found that students who receiving extra courses and attending more conferences have had a higher scores that measure their knowledge [12].…”

“…In study done on Greece there is also no difference [5]. Other study found that students who are familiar with research publishing and presentation in conferences have better knowledge about ethics in comparison with students who did not [12].…”

Knowledge about research publication: A comparative study among dental postgraduate students

“…Similar results have also been reported by Jahanfar S et al in their study. 5 Although most of students were aware of indexing of journals but the fact of getting article published in indexed journal is still not clear to most of the post graduates. The term like h index (Hirsch index) and i10 index introduced by Google scholar in 2011 for measuring the productivity and citation impact factor of a scholar is far unknown to the postgraduates because formal training in research methodology and publication ethics is lacking in the post graduates curriculum and similar results quoted by Das KK et al 6 and Robert et al 7 in their study.…”

“…4 The sample size was drawn using sample size calculation software, taking in account the total target population with expected frequency of 50% in each group and 95% confidence interval, and the total target population of post graduate student which was 50 in each year. 5 A random sampling was done to select the subjects till the desired sample size is obtained. The group one comprised 30 dental postgraduate students who were appearing for their final exams and the second group also comprised of 30 dental post graduate students, who just the entered the final year.…”

“…3,4 The guidelines for publishing the research works are also provided by the specific journals according to their norms on their journal pages so to ease in following those instructions it is necessary to be well versed with scientific terms and one should be in a habit of writing research in the standardize protocols only. 5 Moreover we agree due to complexity of research no one can accomplish the total concept of it but the terms like Scopus, Pubmed, Google Scholar, Ebsco, ISI should be in the vocabulary of the students and the benefits of publishing between indexed and non indexed journal should be transparent in their mind. Once the concepts are clear the difficulty level drops and getting into fraud practices and being cheated also become negligible.…”