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Promotion of fair research activities at Kumamoto University

Due to stories of research fraud in the news recently, the university established the Fair Research Promotion Committee under the direct control of the President, the chief administrative officer of the university to discuss and implement methods for preventing research fraud.
Kumamoto University will promote fair research activities and endeavor to create an environment with no room for misconduct to take place.
 

Kumamoto University will strive to ensure that its research activities will always be fair.


Misconduct in research activities or inappropriate use of research funds is never acceptable because it not only erodes public trust in the research institute where the misconduct has taken place, but also undermines people's confidence in science, and thus hinders the development of science.
 
To take action against research misconduct, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology presented its “Guidelines for Responding to Misconduct in Research” (adopted by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on August 26, 2014) and “Guidelines for Managing and Auditing Public Research Funds at Research Institutions (Implementation Standard)” (revised February 1, 2021) to research institutions.
 
To comply with the two guidelines, Kumamoto University has renewed its rules and responsibility structure, working further to promote fair research activities.
 
We hereby declare that, with a strong awareness of our pride and social responsibility as Kumamoto University staff members and based on mutual cooperation between our research and administrative staff, we will strive to create and maintain an environment with no room for misconduct to take place in order to ensure fair research activities.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　President of Kumamoto University
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Kumamoto University’s approaches to the promotion of fair research activities


Table of contents
  1. Regulations, etc. concerning fair research activities
  2. Fair Research Handbook
  3. Compliance Counter
  4. Research Ethics Education
  5. Affidavit
  6. “iThenticate” plagiarism detection/check software
  7. Research-paper writing seminar
  8. High value goods and special types of service
 

Developing and maintaining an environment for fair research

1．Regulations, etc. concerning fair research activities
Kumamoto University has established the following regulations, etc. to promote fair research activities:
2．Fair Research Handbook
The handbook is intended to clarify the basic rules of fair research activities for anyone performing research at Kumamoto University.
3．Compliance Counter
The Compliance Counter is available as stipulated in Article 15 of the “National University Corporation Kumamoto University’s Rules on Preventing Research Fraud “.

 

Improving awareness about research ethics

4．Research Ethics Education  *For internal users only
Kumamoto University provides education on research ethics thorough e-learning courses specified for each department.
5．Affidavit
“National University Corporation Kumamoto University Rules on Preventing Research Fraud” requires all faculty and staff members employed by the university to submit an affidavit concerning research misconduct prevention.
All of Kumamoto University’s faculty and staff members are requested to submit an affidavit via the university portal page as early as possible.  

To promote fair research activities

6．“iThenticate” plagiarism detection/check software 
This software is effective for preventing unintentional research fraud related to “plagiarism,” one of the specific research misconduct types mentioned in the MEXT guidelines, such as missing citation credits.
7．Research-paper writing seminar
Inviting a lecturer from Elsevier Japan KK, we held a research-paper writing seminar for students and faculty members engaged in research. Read this material to learn about the types of papers most likely to be accepted, or how to prevent misconduct concerning paper writing.
Papers Most Likely to be Accepted: The Viewpoints of Editors and Reviewers (Elsevier Japan KK)

8．High value goods and special types of service
To prevent the resale of goods purchased with research funds or misappropriation of such goods, including conversion to private use, Kumamoto University controls high value goods (PCs, digital cameras, etc.) and special types of services (databases, computer programs, etc.) through a purchase request system（GrowOne system）.
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