Academic misconduct, misrepresentation and gaming: a reassessment

The motivation for this Special Issue is increasing concern not only with academic misconduct but also with less easily defined forms of misrepresentation and gaming. In an era of intense emphasis on measuring academic performance, there has been a proliferation of scandals, questionable behaviors and devious stratagems involving not just individuals but also organizations, including universities, editors and reviewers, journal publishers, and conference organizers. This introduction first reviews the literature on the prevalence of academic misconduct, misrepresentation and gaming (MMG). The core of the article is organized around a life-cycle model of the production and dissemination of research results. We synthesize the findings in the MMG literature at the level of the investigator or research team, emphasizing that misbehavior extends well beyond fabrication and falsification to include behaviors designed to exaggerate or to mislead readers as to the significance of research findings. MMG is next explored in the post-research review, publication, and post-publication realms. Moving from the individual researcher to the organizational level, we examine how MMG can be engaged in by either journals or organizations employing or funding the researchers. The changing institutional environment including the growth of research assessment exercises, increased quantitative output measurement and greater pressure to publish may all encourage MMG. In the final section, we summarize the main conclusions and offer suggestions both on how we might best address the problems and on topics for future research

Financial Flows in Swiss Publishing

Transitioning the publication system towards Open Access: Study proposes pragmatic Scenario A study has developed scenarios for transitioning Switzerland’s scientific publication system towards Open Access (OA). It recommends a model that proposes a pragmatic and flexible way of making publicly funded research freely available at no charge and with no delay. The study was initiated by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in collaboration with the funding programme ‘Scientific Information’ (SUC P-2) run by swissuniversities. In 2015, the libraries at Switzerland’s higher education institutions paid a total of 70 million Swiss francs in licences and subscriptions to publishing houses in order to make more than 2.5 million scientific articles available. Researchers spent a further 6 million Swiss francs on article processing charges so they could have their results published in open access mode in a scientific journal. These figures were generated by an initial analysis of financial flows in the Swiss higher education system. Scenarios for transitioning towards Open Access Research results obtained with public funding should also be readily available to the public at no charge – this is the principle underlying European efforts to restructure the current publication system towards Open Access (OA). The financial flows analysis commissioned by the SNSF in association with SUC P-2 (a funding programme set up by swissuniversities) has produced data on the cost of transitioning the system to provide immediate, unrestricted electronic access to publicly funded publications at no charge by 2024. On this basis it outlines possible scenarios for transitioning the Swiss publication system so that it meets these requirements and identifies the financial impact of each. Every year, more than 30,000 scientific articles are published in Switzerland alone. Internationally, 21 per cent of published articles are currently available free of charge; the corresponding figure for Switzerland is an above-average 30 per cent. From savings to substantial extra costs The financial flows analysis differentiates between the costs associated with various scenarios for implementing Open Access. According to the report, the “blue road” would generate savings in excess of 2 million Swiss francs annually. In this scenario, the post-print version of all articles would be placed in publicly accessible repositories after a certain embargo period. At the other end of the scale is the “gold road”. This involves the immediate release of articles in scientific OA journals, usually after the author or another sponsor (university, research funding organisation) has paid an article processing charge. If this scenario were to be implemented in full today, it would lead to additional costs of about 27 million Swiss francs annually in Switzerland. The additional costs would be even higher with a “hybrid” OA model, in which licensing fees would be charged in addition to the fees for making an article available on an OA basis in a conventional subscription journal – or in other words a scenario in which the article would basically have to be paid for twice. A mixed model as a pragmatic and flexible approach The authors of the study, Cambridge Economic Policy Associates Ltd., compared the costs associated with the various scenarios with the current standard costs. The actual costs for Switzerland depend heavily on how quickly the changeover to the “gold road” of Open Access takes place worldwide. As a comparatively small research location, the costs incurred by Switzerland in all scenarios are lower the more rapidly the entire world reaches the 50 per cent mark on the “gold road”. In their report, the authors recommend a combined approach that makes both the “blue road” and the “gold road” to Open Access possible. They calculate that this pragmatic, flexible model for transitioning the publication system towards Open Access would limit the additional costs in Switzerland to 13 million Swiss francs annually. The systematic implementation of a model of this kind would show other countries that Switzerland is serious about making publicly funded research publicly available without delay. Joint action plan needed The authors also recommend greatly improving the quality of the data on physical and financial flows in the publication system. Moreover, they feel that a national strategy and corresponding action plan are needed to coordinate OA activities. Efforts in this direction are already being made in Switzerland under the leadership of swissuniversities. Switzerland should also play an active role in international discussions. In the medium term, the costs of transitioning towards Open Access will depend heavily on whether bargaining power vis-à-vis the major publishing houses can be established nationally and internationally. In addition, the necessary infrastructure needs to be developed in Switzerland, and scientists have to be brought on board. The SNSF and swissuniversities take note of the study results. Possible scenarios for the transition in Switzerland will be discussed within the scope of the national strategy and the OA action plan. Contact Swiss National Science Foundation Ingrid Kissling-Näf, Head of the Humanities and Social Sciences division Tel.: +41 (0)31 308 22 56; E-mail: [email protected] Scientific Information programme (SUC P-2, swissuniversities): Gabi Schneider, Deputy Programme Manager Tel.: +41 (0)61 267 29 90, E-mail: [email protected]

Benchmarking water retail cost efficiency in England and Wales

Privatised water companies in England and Wales are subject to economic regulation by the industry regulator (Ofwat). Ofwat sets 5-year caps on the prices companies can charge their customers. These caps are in part based on the benchmarking of companies’ costs. Ofwat has not previously used econometrics to benchmark domestic retail costs, but it undertook such modelling in its 2019 price review analysis. This is the first journal article to present an efficiency analysis of domestic water retail costs in England and Wales. Our approach is different from Ofwat’s, as we propose two new ways of accounting for differences in the effect on cost of the number of single and dual service customers (water / sewerage-only and water and sewerage). Some companies’ cost efficiencies vary greatly between the two ways. Depending on the approach to price capping, this could possibly have non-negligible implications for companies’ caps

Performance-Based Aid: Why it will probably not meet promises

Performance-based aid (PBA) is increasingly advocated as a way to improve development aid effectiveness through resolving incentive issues inherent in aid relationships. Some donors use PBA together with performance-based financing arrangements within partner countries. Expectations from PBA are high – yet, while its rationale may look appealing, it is grounded on a restrictive model and flawed when taking account of real-world context. A number of problems associated to PBA have already been advanced as jeopardising its success. More fundamentally, one may question the mere appropriateness of PBA to provide incentives all along the chain from recipient governments to those who are supposed to produce results. Thus believing that PBA can have a mechanistic trickle-down incentive effect seems an illusion.GRAP-PA Sant