236 Ethics in Higher Education: Values-driven Leaders for the Future
and the completeness and accuracy of results in publications. Academics
have been made fully aware of their responsibility not to engage in any
forms of research misconduct, such as plagiarism, fabrication,
falsification or unauthorized use of data, and non-disclosure of potential
conflict of interest. Institutional support, such as the provision of
software for anti-plagiarism, has also been put in place.
13.3.3 Enhancing Awareness and Familiarity
Efforts have been made to keep academics abreast of the ethical
principles and university policy for making justifiable decisions on
ethical issues in their research studies. In particular, junior academics
and those who have not been actively engaged in research in the past
may not be sufficiently aware of, or familiar with, the ethical
requirements. Training resources and materials are thus made available
for them. Activities such as seminars and roundtable meetings have also
been organized periodically, which are useful for enhancing the
knowledge of academics in this area, as well as promoting a culture of
ethical research practices.
Enhancing the “ethical literacy” of academics helps them to identify
and resolve any ethical issues which have not been anticipated and
planned for before a study commences. As Wiles (2012, pp. 1–2)
explains, this encourages them to “understand and engage with ethical
issues as they emerge throughout the process of research and not merely
to view research ethics as something that is completed once a favourable
opinion on a proposed research project has been granted by a research
ethics committee”. Maintaining high ethical standards in research is
regarded as the responsibility of both individual academics and the
institution.