In mid-October 1999, the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy published in the Federal Register a new government-wide policy to define scientific misconduct in order to protect the integrity of the research record (see www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/9910_20_3.html). As currently proposed, scientific misconduct for U.S. federally supported research will consist of "fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results." Falsifica- tion includes data obtained by instrumental manipulation, and plagiarism explicitly includes information encountered during peer review. The new defini- tion does not deal with authorship disputes (which are deferred to the authority of collegial arbitration). A final set of definitions will be implemented after a period of open public commentary. A finding of intentional misconduct, representing "a significant departure from accepted practices of the scientific community," could result in loss of research funding and disqualification from future funding.
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