Acting on ‘soft’ research misconduct – A Research Integrity commentary

In this commentary sheet we discuss what some have termed 'soft misconduct' and five ways in which institutions can deal with them. Others have reasonably observed that they are just research misconduct and should be investigated and punished as such.  While this might indeed be the case, until national research integrity codes (such as the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research) list these behaviours as being research misconduct, institutions will need to deal with them with their own policies and procedures.