Important medical advances have emerged from successful innovations, but innovation should always be approached carefully. Medical therapy should be treated as research whenever data are gathered to develop new medical information and for publication. When an innovative therapy has no precedent, consultation with peers, an institutional review board, or another expert group is necessary to assess the risks of the innovation, the probable outcomes of not using a standard therapy, and whether the innovation is in the patient's best interest . Scientific Publication Authors of research reports must be sufficiently acquainted with the work being reported that they can take public responsibility for the integrity of the study and the validity of the findings, and they must have substantially contributed to the research itself. Scientists build on the published work of other researchers and can proceed with confidence only if they can assume that the previously reported facts on which their work is based have been reported accurately.
All scientists have a professional responsibility to be honest in their publications.
Plagiarism is unethical. Incorporating the words of others or one's own published words, either verbatim or by paraphrasing without appropriate attribution, is unethical and may have legal consequences. All Rights Reserved.