If you are a researcher, you are expected to comply with the ethical and legal principles, and norms as you conduct your study. According to National Institutes of Health (NIH), a misconduct occurs when fabrication, falsification or plagiarism is committed by the researchers. Honest mistakes are not considered as a misconduct which is why it is important for the editors to thoroughly investigate whenever there is a complain. If a misconduct happened, it can break trust between you and your colleagues, and the funding agencies, which may make it more difficult for you to receive grants. More importantly, it can cause the public to lose confidence and belief in the ability and integrity of researchers like you.
Last June 2017, Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) retracted an article entitled Equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1) regulates postischemic blood flow during acute kidney injury in mice. It was reported that the researchers fabricated and falsified their data. There was also insufficient data to support the figures presented in the article which prompted JCI to take action. The Editorial Board did further investigations due to the same images that the researchers used to represent different experiments. They manipulated the data just to get their expected outcome that Ent1 and adenosine receptors can be a key on establishing renal perfusion following ischemic AKI. Figures 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, and supplemental figures 6 and 8 lack supporting details. They did not gather enough data to support the findings.In addition, Grenz et al. (2012) duplicated histology images in the results.
To avoid these kinds of misconduct, you should not manipulate the data and be honest with the results that you got from the experiment. Conducting research with integrity implies doing research in a way which enables others to have trust in the techniques, discoveries, and any distributions in view of the examination. You must not be bothered if the data did not manifest your expected results because no result is also a result.
If ever you get curious on the images and the study itself, here's the original research: Equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1) regulates postischemic blood flow during acute kidney injury in mice
References:
-Research Misconduct. National Institutes of Health. [accessed 2017 Dec 14]. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/research_integrity/research_misconduct.htm
-Grenz A, Bauerle JD, Dalton JH, Ridyard D, Badulak A, Tak E, Mcnamee EN, Clambey E, Moldovan R, Reyes G, et al. [Retraction] Equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1) regulates postischemic blood flow during acute kidney injury in mice. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2017 [accessed 2017 Dec 14];127(6):2438–2438. https://www.jci.org/articles/view/94890
-Grenz A, Bauerle JD, Dalton JH, Ridyard D, Badulak A, Tak E, Mcnamee EN, Clambey E, Moldovan R, Reyes G, et al. [Expression of Concern] Equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1) regulates postischemic blood flow during acute kidney injury in mice. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2014 [accessed 2017 Dec 14];124(6):2807–2807. https://www.jci.org/articles/view/76888
