ÉTS

Research Integrity and Responsible Conduct

ÉTS offers an environment conducive to the advancement of knowledge and socio-economic progress in which each student and researcher can work in confidence. In return, you must at all times behave responsibly in conducting your research, whether it is funded or not. Research integrity is essential to ensuring the quality of knowledge and the protection of all.

What is the ÉTS policy on Integrity and Responsible Conduct in Research?

ÉTS provides a climate of openness and respect as well as a certain liberty to any person using its resources. In exchange, you must conduct your research in a responsible manner.

This necessitates making ethical and legal choices that should be consistent with your personal conscience: 

  • Demonstrate a critical mind;
  • Carry out studies honestly and seriously;
  • Make rigorous analyses;
  • Commit to disseminating the results of your research;
  • Carefully apply the relevant professional standards.

This integrity is essential to fostering excellence in the quest and the dissemination of knowledge. It consists of putting into practice your values and principles.

What values and principles are advocated by ÉTS?

In the area of research integrity and responsible conduct, ÉTS advocates the values of the Council of Canadian Academies (2010): 

  • Honesty: Candour, absence of fraud and deception
  • Fairness: Impartiality and healthy judgement, free of any bias or favouritism
  • Confidence: The ability to rely on the reputation and actions of a person or an establishment
  • Responsibility: The ability to account for and answer for your actions
  • Openness: Transparency of processes and practices, characterized by the visibility or accessibility of information

As a member of ÉTS, you must respect the fundamental principles which ÉTS endorses in research:

  • Adopt an equitable approach, open and worthy of confidence in research and all those activities which support, finance or foster it.
  • Assume responsibility for developing, implementing, maintaining and respecting policies and practices designed to ensure accountability and the maintenance of public trust.
  • Be sure you have the knowledge and experience necessary to act as a researcher or a research manager in a given area.
  • Avoid conflicts of interest or, when they are inevitable, deal with them in an ethical manner.
  • Use research funds responsibly.
  • Review the work of others with integrity.
  • Report on your research in a responsible and timely manner, and avoid unduly delaying or intentionally withholding your research results.
  • Ensure the highest standards of accuracy in the choice, collection, recording, analysis, interpretation, reporting, publication and archiving of data and the results of your research.
  • Treat everyone involved with your research fairly and with respect.
  • Acknowledge all contributors and contributions to your research.
  • In training researchers, be sure to convey the values and principles of research integrity and responsible conduct of the present policy.

A Few Examples of Breach of Integrity in Research

  • Fabrication: invention of data, original documents, methods or results, including graphics and images.
  • Falsification: manipulation, alteration or omission of data, original documents, methods or results, including graphics and images, without making mention, which distorts results or conclusions.
  • Destruction of records: Destruction of your data or research files, or those of another person, specifically to avoid the discovery of a reprehensible act or one that violates applicable funding agreements, policies, laws, regulations or professional or disciplinary standards.
  • Plagiarism: use of the published or unpublished works of another person, including theories, concepts, data, original documents, methods and results, including graphics and images, as if they were yours without making the appropriate mentions and, where applicable, without permission.
  • Republication: Publication, in the same language or in another language, of your work, a part of your work or your data which have already been published without adequate reference to the source or without justification.
  • False authorship: Attributing to persons other than those who have contributed sufficiently to work to assume intellectual responsibility for it, or the fact of accepting to be considered as one of the authors of a publication when your contribution is minimal or negligible.
  • Inadequate mention: failing to recognize appropriately the contributions of other persons, in accordance with their respective contributions and the authorship policies which apply to the target publications.
  • Poor management of conflicts of interest: Failure to properly manage any conflict of interest, real, potential or apparent, in accordance with this policy, thus preventing the achievement of one or more of the objectives of the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research.
  • Providing incomplete, inaccurate or false information.
  • Requesting funds for which you know you are ineligible (declared).
  • Including partners without their consent.
  • Use of funds for non-compliant purposes.
  • Diverting funds.
  • Providing inaccurate information on the use of funds.
  • Failure to comply with requirements for certain types of research.
  • Failure to obtain the prerequisite permits or certifications.