Professor A suspected that researcher B from the field of technology has exaggerated their achievements in their curriculum vitae (CV). Additionally, A suspected that B was guilty of plagiarism and self-plagiarism as well as manipulation of the list of authors in a joint article by listing doctoral student C as the primary author without C’s consent. The university conducted two separate preliminary inquiries that found no violation to the responsible conduct of research.
According to TENK, there were reproachable sections in B’s CV, but as a whole B’s actions had not been serious enough to be considered a violation of the responsible conduct of research.
However, based on the material concerning the joint article delivered to TENK, it could not be verified whether B had the consent of their joint authors to use the material in a new article without referring to the book that had previously been published based on it. Additionally, the hearing of C, who had been listed as the primary author, had been inadequate in the preliminary inquiry. Therefore, TENK saw that the university must conduct an investigation proper in accordance with the RCR process.