The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Service) of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Professor Ayodele Atsenuwa has cautioned researchers against plagiarism, falsification, fabrication and other acts of research misconduct capable of casting aspersion on their research.
She stated this at the opening session of a training series on Cultivating Research Integrity and Responsible Conduct of Research in University Researchers, organized by the IREX-UASP Research Integrity and Ethics and Responsible Conduct of Research (RI&E and RCR) Alumni Grant Team 2022-2023.
Prof. Atsenuwa who represented the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Folasade Ogunsola, at the event, pointed out that “The world today is unforgiving, hence, the need for researchers to comply with ethical standards and shun acts that could sabotage their intellectual strides”.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Service) acknowledged the current wave of retractions in research, a trend arising from non-compliance with or violation of research ethics.
She said, “Universities of the future are the ones where the reputation of researchers is the universities’ reputation and vice-versa, where the emphasis is on globalization, therefore, researchers must take note that every unethical act will be uncovered no matter the number of years”.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the UNILAG Research Ethics Committee, Professor Oluwole Familoni described the training as part of measures aimed at upholding the tenets of dignity and integrity, while expanding the frontiers of knowledge.
The immediate past Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics and Research) expressed concern over sharp practices by some researchers and reiterated the commitment of UNILAG through the Research Ethics Committee, to uphold standards and integrity while fulfilling its mandate of knowledge creation.
The Principal Investigator for the Project on Entrenching Research Ethics and Integrity Values and Oversight Capacity Building across 2 Nigerian Universities: the University of Lagos and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Professor Abidemi Akindele explained the objectives of the training series.
According to him, “The project intends to improve the processes and procedures as well as increase joint institutional initiatives, increase institutional funding to support research ethics frameworks as well as drastically reduce incidents of research misconducts such as falsification, fabrication and plagiarism among others”.
The Training Series is organised by the IREX – UASP RI&E/RCR Alumni Grant Team, the collaborative grant is funded by the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) under its University Administration Support Programme (UASP)
It had in attendance, researchers drawn from the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Osun State.
