Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Substantial concerns about the research integrity in Iran have caused research misconducts to be issue for studies. But adequate recognition about causal factors is a necessary part of clear and explicit policy in order to manage the research misconducts and supply the research integrity. This study attempted investigating the available evidence on the reported research misconducts in the Iranian research and its causal factors. Therefore, 30 studies on the Iranian research misconducts were studied. The detected factors to research misconducts based on the reported evidence included: 1. Structural factors such as publication pressure, scientific promotion policies, research funding and job preservation; 2. Organizational factors such as research environment, regulatory-control activities on research and teaching research activities; 3. Personal factors such as research skills, degree orientation, financial benefits, understanding and moral judgment. The analytical model of causal factors was designed. Therewith, cultural and situational factors have received less attention in the literature and they have major focus on the obvious types of research misconduct (data fabrication, Falsification and Plagiarism), especially plagiarism.