Daily Times

Higher Education enrollment in public and private Universities is increasing every year around the country. There is a need to create awareness about research ethics and academic dishonesty at all levels in these Universities. The stakeholders, i.e. students, faculty, staff, need to be apprised about the definition and manifestations of such unethical acts. Most of the time, universities give orientation to new students, which cover code of conduct for punctuality, examination, and other related matters to discipline,  but very little is shared about academic dishonesty and research ethics.

As per University regulations, i.e. Charter or Act, it is the responsibility of the institution to develop rules and regulations within boundaries of powers given to it for developing a plan for teaching, learning, examinations, and research activities. There are different structures in Universities for monitoring all academic and research activities conducted by faculty members and students. Even then, there are reports of unethical practices followed by some faculty members, scholars, and staff who are involved in research projects or tasks. In order to prevent such acts, it is mandatory to define the roles of all individuals who are part of the research project. This will also help in avoiding blame game in the future if any such matter malpractice is reported.

For creating a research environment and facilitating post-graduate level courses, Universities have Board of Advanced Studies and Research (BASR) as the standing committee in most of the Universities. It is observed that BASR is not that active in some Universities, and most of the time, only used as an approving body for academic and research matters; rather, it should be supervising and facilitating committee. There is a dire need for having professional debates on all proposals submitted for consideration to BASR; if something is not vetted in true critical style, then BASR will not help the institution in developing a quality research culture. The BASR members should be senior faculty members having a vast experience of teaching and research; they need to be trained on scientific grounds for evaluating research proposals according to the rubrics set by the respective standard associations.

The issues of authorship disputes and plagiarism can be addressed by following the policy of devising roles and responsibilities for conducting and publishing research. The mechanism for dispute resolution and grievance redressal need to be in place before the execution of any research project activities. The international standard operating procedures can be adopted as good practice for the purpose. These can be customized as well with proper permission. The time to claim against any violation, grievance, complaint, or query may be fixed to avoid unnecessary delay of processing the same.  The guidelines for research ethics can be summarized in the form of a research manual which should be made available for all those who are involved in research activities. The follow-up and supervising activities should be conducted regularly, it should be conducted in a friendly environment to guide the researchers not for penalizing them due to unintended actions done by them.

It is also required that researchers of one University may share their progress with peers from other institutions, it will help in identifying different dimensions in the research being carried out by the team who may have missed that dimension.  Although external reviewers are only involved for a Ph.D. thesis review, why not for reviewing the progress of any other research grant?  Such activities will have a positive impact on the research projects as the whole team will focus on quality research work, which is the prime objective. It is important to create an enabling environment where not only problems are identified through such interactions, but also possible solutions are also expected.

There are standing rules and policies of the Higher Education Commission as well for developing a quality research culture. All Universities are expected to follow such guidelines for researching professionally. Pakistan has the potential to rise on the horizon of research and inventions by following good practices of research. The population which is consumer these days can be converted to inventors and leaders through following such good practices.

The writer is a Dy. Director, Higher Education Commission.