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A Fraud Triangle Perspective for Preventing and Detecting Academic Research Misconduct
Abstract
Student cheating continually attracts research attention. However, faculty misconduct in the form of plagiarism, falsification, and fabrication of data (research misconduct) is also prevalent, but there has been scant research in accounting on this egregious problem. Given that academic research misconduct is a form of white-collar crime, that faculty members serve as ethical role models for students, that the discovery of research misconduct can damage the reputation of a college or university, and that research misconduct negatively reflects on the perceived validity of all academic research, surprising in the field of accounting these unethical behaviors have garnered a paucity of research interest.
In this paper, the AICPA fraud triangle model is used as a framework to explore the drivers of research misconduct. Literature on the fraud triangle elements of pressures/incentives, opportunity, and attitude/rationalization, which previously have been used primarily to address business frauds, are reviewed and related to the academic fraud environment. Higher education leaders can use the fraud triangle model to improve their ethics policies and procedures, and thereby minimize or mitigate future occurrences of research misconduct. While policies and procedures targeted at the fraud triangle elements are necessary, they may not be sufficient.
For leadership initiatives to be effective, these steps must be accompanied by the implementation of an ethical culture. This ethical tone-at-the-top in higher education is argued also to be a primary driver of ethical faculty behavior. Therefore, higher education leaders should develop and implement rigorous research standards and procedures, while at the same time striving to develop an ethical climate that discourages all unethical conduct (including research misconduct). Based on a review of the fraud triangle and ethical leadership literature, leadership strategies for preventing and detecting this serious problem, along with suggestions for future research are provided.
Key words: faculty misconduct, academic misconduct, research misconduct, plagiarism, data falsification, data fabrication, fraud triangle, ethical leadership, tone-at-the-top, ethical culture.
Donald Lamar Ariail, Kennesaw State University
Donald Larry Crumbley, Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge