Open Access Policy and Ethical Guidelines

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Deeksha Raj · Accepted Answer

Open Access

Open Access (OA) is a publishing model in which scholarly content is made freely available online without financial, legal, or technical barriers.

Readers can access the content for free.
Authors often retain copyright and allow reuse through licenses such as Creative Commons.

Licensing in Open Access

Licensing determines how readers may use, share, reuse, or modify the published work.
OA journals commonly use Creative Commons (CC) licenses.

Common Licenses Used in Open Access

1. CC-BY (Attribution)

Anyone can use, share, modify, or distribute the work.
Must give proper credit to the author.
Required by many OA publishers (PLOS, BioMed Central).

2. CC-BY-SA (Share Alike)

Same permissions as CC-BY.
Derivatives must use the same license.

3. CC-BY-ND (No Derivatives)

Work can be shared but cannot be modified.

4. CC-BY-NC (Non-Commercial)

Can use/share the work.
Cannot be used for commercial purposes.

5. CC-BY-NC-SA

Non-commercial use only.
Derivatives must follow Share Alike rules.

6. CC-BY-NC-ND (Most Restrictive)

Free to read and share.
No commercial use.
No modifications allowed.

Ethical Guidelines in Research

Ethical guidelines ensure honesty, integrity, fairness, and responsibility in conducting and publishing research.

Key Components of Ethical Guidelines

1. Honesty and Integrity

Report data truthfully.
No fabrication, falsification, or manipulation.

2. Avoiding Plagiarism

Give proper credit through citation.
Do not copy others’ work.

3. Informed Consent

Participants must voluntarily agree.
They should know the purpose, risks, and benefits.

4. Confidentiality and Privacy

Protect personal and identifiable data.

5. Respect for Participants

No physical, emotional, or social harm.
Extra protection for vulnerable groups.

6. Responsible Publication Practices

No duplicate submissions.
Avoid “salami slicing.”
Authorship only for real contributors.

7. Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Declare any financial or personal interests that may bias the work.

8. Ethical Peer Review

Maintain confidentiality.
Provide fair and unbiased feedback.

Case Studies: Data Fabrication

Case Study 1: Jan Hendrik Schön – Physics & Nanotechnology

Field: Condensed Matter Physics, Nanotechnology
Institution: Bell Labs, USA
Year Exposed: 2002

What He Claimed

Schön reported groundbreaking achievements such as:

Molecular-scale transistors
High-temperature superconductivity in organic materials
Novel semiconductor behaviors

How the Fabrication Was Found

Scientists discovered:

Identical noise patterns in graphs from unrelated experiments
Unrealistically perfect data sets
No raw data (he claimed it was “accidentally deleted”)

An independent investigation found fabrication or falsification in at least 16 papers.

Consequences

All major papers were retracted.
Schön was dismissed from Bell Labs.
Physics journals strengthened data-archiving and reproducibility requirements.

Case Study 2: Hwang Woo-Suk – Stem Cell Research Fraud

Field: Stem Cell Biology & Cloning
Country: South Korea
Years Exposed: 2005–2006

What He Claimed

Hwang published studies claiming:

Creation of patient-specific human embryonic stem cells
Successful human stem cell cloning
Unusually high success rates compared to global labs

These claims suggested breakthroughs for diseases like Parkinson’s, diabetes, and spinal injuries.

How the Fabrication Was Found

Investigations revealed:

No real cloned stem cell lines existed
Image manipulation and duplication
Fabricated data
Ethical violations (coercion and payment of egg donors)

Consequences

Two major Science papers were retracted.
Hwang lost his academic position and faced legal consequences.
Stricter global regulations on stem-cell research.

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Open Access Policy and Ethical Guidelines

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