Faculty ; Medicine

This oration was delivered by the author during the annual discurso de apertura at the formal opening of the academic year 2021-2022 at the University of Santo Tomas last August 2, 2021. The discurso started as a Dominican Catholic tradition on July 16, 1866 as an annual event. The professor or dean assigned the preparation of this academic paper is appointed by the rector of the university a few months prior to the opening of each school year.

Research integrity is manifested thru the use of honest and verifiable research methods with adherence to accepted professional codes. Recently, trustworthiness in research has been challenged by various forms of research misconduct, such as analytical flexibility, data dredging, HARKing (hypothesis after research knowledge), plagiarism, and selective and distorted reporting. Drivers of research misconduct have been identified as institutional--publication incentives to pursue a career, researcher--metric of success is publication volume, and the journal-- more likely to accept papers with positive. The open-access mode propelling the proliferation of predatory journals is causing a dilemma to sound research reporting. Measures were established to curtail research integrity challenges, such as study registration, open data, common reporting standards, a team of rivals, and blind analysis. This report will elaborate and provide insight into what influenced research misconduct, how it can be mitigated, and how to maintain a credible research environment.
Scientific Misconduct ; Predatory Journals As Topic