The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday assured that “fraud or any form of ethical infringement of research” within the department will not be tolerated and will be dealt with accordingly.
DepEd issued the statement following reports of teachers allegedly buying ready-made research for promotion and funding as pointed out by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.
Under the leadership of Secretary Leonor Briones, DepEd said it “puts premium to the power of research in supporting policy decisions.” Thus, it assured that “any fraud or any form of ethical infringement of research within DepEd will not be tolerated.”
DepEd explained that the Research Management Guidelines (RMG) -- issued as Department Order No. 16, s. 2017 -- has established research committees across governance levels such as the the National Research Committee (NRC), Regional Research Committee (RRC), and the Schools Division Research Committee (SDRC). Its Section V.A, DepEd added, “outlines the composition of the committee members and their role and responsibilities.”
"Primarily, the committees are tasked to spearhead research management initiatives and processes in the region, particularly the process of calling for proposals, review of the research proposals, provision of technical assistance in the conduct of research, and the dissemination and utilization of research results, among others,” DepEd explained.
DepEd noted that while the research committees were initially established to process proposals for funding under the Basic Education Research Fund (BERF), the RMG has “expanded their scope to also process research studies regardless of funding.”
“Throughout the research management process, the RMG placed safeguards to ensure that research proposals and completed research studies adhere to the highest ethical standards.”
In submitting a research proposal, DepEd said the proponent will submit an anti-plagiarism and absence of conflict of interest declaration. “This will be further validated during the initial evaluation where the research committee secretariat will check on plagiarism and possible conflict of interest in the conduct of the research,” it added.
Throughout the research process, DepEd added that the research committee shall provide technical assistance, if needed. “Checks on plagiarism and possible fraud are also included in the acceptance of the completed research.”
DepEd said that as per RMG, completed research studies must be an original work and “any act of fraud and plagiarism will be dealt with accordingly” -- which includes being blacklisted from availing any research grant in the Department.
“We encourage that fraudulent research studies be reported in their respective research committees for appropriate action,” DepEd said while assuring that a “more comprehensive research ethics policy” in the department is being developed to complement the research management policy of the agency.