Awareness of the Misconduct in Sports Science Research

Abstract

Background. Misconduct in sport science research is a detrimental practice, as it affects data reliability and decreases the validity of all research in the long run. Objectives. The objective of this narrative review is to identify the main problems of misconduct in sport science research and point out effective prevention methods. Methods. A literature search was undertaken in "Web of Science" and "PUBMED" databases, where several terms identified a priori and related to Boolean operators were combined, resulting in a total of 181 records and 19 documents found by cross-references that were subsequently selected. Results. As a result, we found that most abusive behavior consists of results fabrication, manipulation, and plagiarism. It is noted that, in modern times, there is more pressure on data publication, also, easy Internet access seems to have increased misconduct behaviors. Meanwhile, there are several studies focused on identifying misconduct and ensure research validity, such as students/professors' characteristics; analysis of academic and national procedures; action procedures, and strategies when identified abusive behavior. Conclusion. The present investigation has relapsed a lot on the identification of profiles of researchers who carry out misconduct and have used mostly one methodology, in this case, questionnaires, of which one can question the validity of the answers given due to the susceptibility of the subject itself. Therefore, we believe that the focus of the investigation to solve this problem must be changed and who can answer the following question: how can we identify data manipulation, fabrication, or falsification during its collection or treatment?