Welcome to the Rigorous Reproducible Responsible Research Integrity at UF (R4I@UF) website! Please visit each month for a new case that may be used as a framework for a brief conversation about best research practices in your lab meeting, research conference, journal club, or any research meeting.
May 2025 Case of the Month: I Wrote It, Why Rewrite It?
This month’s case scenario is one of a series that follows the story of Dr. Thompson’s laboratory, and explores the issues that arise from being in a small lab through the eyes of a new principal investigator (PI), a postdoctoral fellow, and a graduate student.
Please watch this brief video (2:12) to set up the research dilemma. After watching the video, consider these questions.
1. Was the graduate student right to be concerned about this practice?
2. What do you think of the postdoc’s explanation for why he reused old papers?
3. What might happen if the Principal Investigator does not change the text before publication? Would that be self-plagiarism?
4. What do you think of the graduate student’s decision not to talk to anyone about her concerns?
5. What could happen if she does pursue this line of questioning?
6. What would you do in her place?
7. What would be a better way to approach writing the questionable sections of the paper?
Plagiarism is a form of research misconduct. For more information, please see the Avoiding Research Misconduct resources web page.
This case study is adapted from Research Cases for Use by the NIH Community. For more information about mentoring, please see the Mentor & Trainee Responsibilities resources web page.
This website is a service of UF Research Integrity, Security & Compliance and the “RCR on Campus” working group. We believe that research integrity is not achieved by simply taking an RCR course and “checking the box” that training is done. Our vision is to maintain a research culture in our everyday lives as UF researchers and research trainees in which we naturally follow best practices to ensure that the research we do is responsible, rigorous, and reproducible.
To submit a “Case of the Month” for the R4I@UF website, please contact Wayne T. McCormack, PhD (mccormac at ufl.edu).