The Research Integrity Officer (RIO) receives and manages allegations of scholarly or research misconduct at The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC). Initial allegations or evidence may be reported by anyone to any faculty member or administrator, who must then report the allegations to the OUHSC RIO.
Scholarly misconduct involves any form of behavior that entails an act of deception whereby one’s work or the work of others is misrepresented. The term scholarly misconduct encompasses scientific and other types of misconduct, and is distinguished from honest errors and ambiguities of interpretation that are inherent in the scholarly process. Further, scholarly misconduct involves significant and intentional breaches of integrity that may take numerous forms, including but not limited to falsification, fabrication, plagiarism, improper use of information gained by privileged access, serious deviation from the accepted scientific method such as deliberate manipulations or improper reporting of results, material failure to comply with research rules at the federal/state/institutional level (including conflict of interest, violations involving the use of funds, care of animals, protection of human subjects, use of investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biological, and/or chemical materials), as well as inappropriate behavior in relation to misconduct such as inappropriate accusations or failure to report misconduct, withholding or destruction of information relevant to a claim of misconduct, and retaliation against persons involved in the allegation or investigation of misconduct.
The OUHSC Ethics in Research policy applies to all OUHSC faculty, staff and students and can be found in the OUHSC Faculty Handbook, Appendix P.
Please contact the RIO if you have any questions/concerns about a potential ethics in research or scholarly misconduct issue. Discussions can remain confidential and seeking advice or discussion does not necessarily initiate the scholarly misconduct process.
In addition, the University has also established an independent third party anonymous tip hotline for anyone to confidentially report suspected wrongdoing or unethical behavior without the fear of retaliation; OU Report It! Hotline can be accessed 24-hours a day by phone (844-428-6531), web (https://ouhsc.ethicspoint.com).