Research Integrity
Ethics Approval and Informed Consent: What Authors Must Report
If your study involved people, their data, or animals, editors will look for two things: ethics approval and informed consent. Here is what needs appr...
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Directive Academy
Guides on peer review, research integrity & scholarly publishing — for authors, reviewers and editors
Research Integrity
Reproducibility and Replication: Why They Matter and How to Support Them
A result that cannot be reproduced is not yet knowledge. Here is the difference between reproducibility and re...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
Research Integrity
Image Integrity: Where Adjustment Ends and Manipulation Begins
Adjusting an image is sometimes fine and sometimes misconduct. The line is clear once you know it — and journa...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
Research Integrity
Duplicate and Redundant Publication (and Salami Slicing)
Publishing the same work twice, or slicing one study into several thin papers, distorts the literature and cou...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
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Research Integrity
Who Counts as an Author? CRediT and Authorship Explained
Authorship carries credit and accountability — so who qualifies? Learn the ICMJE criteria, why ghost and gift authorship are wrong, and how CRediT rec...
Research Integrity
Conflicts of Interest in Research: What to Declare and Why
A conflict of interest is not wrongdoing — but failing to declare one is. Learn what counts as a conflict, what to disclose, and how to write a clear...
Research Integrity
What Is a Retraction? (and How to Avoid One)
A retraction formally withdraws a published article from the scholarly record. Learn why articles are retracted, how it differs from a correction, and...
Research Integrity
Types of Plagiarism and How to Avoid Them
Plagiarism is not only copying and pasting. Learn the main types — including self-plagiarism and mosaic plagiarism — how journals detect them, and how...
Research Integrity
Using AI Tools in Research Writing (and How to Disclose Them)
Generative AI can help with research writing — but it cannot be an author, and its use must be disclosed. Here are the rules, the risks, and how to st...
Research Integrity
How to Identify a Predatory Journal: A Complete Checklist
Predatory journals take your money and skip real peer review. Use this 12-point checklist to tell a legitimate open-access journal from a predatory on...
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