This policy establishes the research environment within which staff members and postgraduate research students carry out their Research. It also provides an overreaching framework for the development and implementation of all research perspectives at Fatima College (Autonomous), Madurai.

The policy has application to all disciplines. A robust and responsible research culture will demonstrate:

Honesty and integrity.

Respect for research participants, and the environment, colleague and the University.

Good stewardship of the resources used to conduct the research.

Appropriate acknowledgement of the role of sampling units, including institution and research units.

Responsible communication of research results based on the findings.

To strengthen the institutional capacity for strategic, technical and operational planning, Budgeting and control of all research activities of the college.

To develop rules, procedures and guidelines for granting research support, instituting awards, and supporting all other related activities.

To encourage and facilitate the publication of the research work/projects in reputed academic journals.

To encourage and facilitate the presentation/communication of the research work/projects as well as their findings and recommendation through academic events such as workshops, seminars and guest lectures.

To provide a modality for proper coordination of all research activities of the college and aligning them to the vision and mission of the college and national development goals.

To identify and suggest researchers about the appropriate research opportunities announced by different academic, research, industry and government organizations.

The policy of research (the Code) aims to maintain the highest standards of integrity and professionalism in all research conducted by the faculty members and research scholars.

The purpose of this document is to establish those minimum requirements for responsibilities, the proper conduct of research, management of research data and materials, publication and other matters pertaining to research.

Individual scholars should be free to select the subject matter of their choice for research, to seek support from any source for their work and to enjoy the freedom to arrive at their own findings and conclusions.

The findings and conclusions should be made available for scrutiny and criticism.

Research procedures should not violate the established professional ethics pertaining to the personal rights of living beings.

Facilitate freedom of access to the research data, processes and conclusions.

Fatima College has the responsibility to promote and sustain a culture of research integrity through the development and communication of appropriate policies and standards and through the provision of support and suitable infrastructure.

As part of the above, the college will promote effective mentoring and supervision of researchers and research trainees. This includes advising on research integrity, research ethics, research design and methods, and the responsible conduct of research through these mechanisms and through relevant ethics committees. The college also has a responsibility to respond to, investigate and deal appropriately with any allegations of research practices not complying with the standards expressed in this policy.

Maintain high standards of responsible research through intellectual honesty and integrity, and scholarly and scientific rigor.

Respect the truth and the rights of those affected by their research.

Manage conflicts of interest so that ethical and scholarly considerations are not compromised.

Adopt appropriate methods to achieve the research aims.

Accurately cite information such as awards, degrees conferred and research publication details.

Promote adoption of and avoid departures from the Code.

Conform to the policies of the University and requirements of the funding organization.

Ensure the accuracy of their results and the work of assistants report and disseminate research findings responsibilities.

Report, breaches of the Code or evidence of research misconduct in a timely manner.

The responsible conduct of research is an integral part of the quality assurance of research organisations. From the point of view of research integrity, the premises for the responsible conduct of research are the following:

The research follows the principles that are endorsed by the research community, that is, integrity, meticulousness, and accuracy in conducting research, and in recording, presenting, and evaluating the research results.

The methods applied for data acquisition as well as for research and evaluation, conform to scientific criteria and are ethically sustainable. When publishing the research results, the results are communicated in an open and responsible fashion that is intrinsic to the dissemination of scientific knowledge.

The researcher takes due account of the work and achievements of other researchers by respecting their work, citing their publications appropriately, and by giving their achievements the credit and weight they deserve in carrying out the researcher’s own research and publishing its results.

The researcher complies with the standards set for scientific knowledge in planning and conducting the research, in reporting the research results and in recording the data obtained during the research.

Researchers refrain from all research-related evaluation and decision-making situations, when there is reason to suspect a conflict of interest.

In addition, researchers also need to comply with the practices listed above when working as teachers or instructors, when applying for research positions or for research funding, as well as when functioning as experts in their field both inside and outside the research community.

A breach of the code for the research conduct is an unintentional failure to comply with principles or specific provisions of the college’s research policies governing the conduct of research by the researchers. Repeated or continuing breaches of the may constitute research misconduct.

Research misconduct includes:

Fabrication of data or results.

Falsification or misrepresentation of data or results.

Plagiarism of data, results or written outputs.

Redundant or duplicate publication of data, results or written outputs.

Failure to declare or adequately manage risk to the safety of human participants or the well being of animals or the environment.

Misleading ascription of authorship to a publication, including:

Listing authors without their permission.

Attributing work to people who did not contribute to the publication.

Omitting people who are eligible to be authors.

Failing to appropriately acknowledge the work primarily produced by others.

Failure to disclose conflicts of interest or cases where a conflict of interest might reasonably be perceived to exist.

Falsification or misrepresentation to obtain funding.

Misuse or misappropriation of funds.