Research ethics provides guidelines for the responsible conduct of research. In addition, it educates and monitors scientists conducting research to ensure a high ethical standard. The following is a general summary of some ethical principles:
Honesty:
Honestly report data, results, methods and procedures, and publication status. Do not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data.
Objectivity:
Strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, grant writing, expert testimony, and other aspects of research.
Integrity:
Keep your promises and agreements; act with sincerity; strive for consistency of thought and action.
Carefulness:
Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and critically examine your own work and the work of your peers. Keep good records of research activities.
Openness:
Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to criticism and new ideas.
Respect for Intellectual Property:
Honor patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property. Do not use unpublished data, methods, or results without permission. Give credit where credit is due. Never plagiarize.
Confidentiality:
Protect confidential communications, such as papers or grants submitted for publication, personnel records, trade or military secrets, and patient records.
Responsible Publication:
Publish in order to advance research and scholarship, not to advance just your own career. Avoid wasteful and duplicative publication.
Responsible Mentoring:
Help to educate, mentor, and advise students. Promote their welfare and allow them to make their own decisions.
Respect for Colleagues:
Respect your colleagues and treat them fairly.
Social Responsibility:
Strive to promote social good and prevent or mitigate social harms through research, public education, and advocacy.
Non-Discrimination:
Avoid discrimination against colleagues or students on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or other factors that are not related to their scientific competence and integrity.
Competence:
Maintain and improve your own professional competence and expertise through lifelong education and learning; take steps to promote competence in science as a whole.
Legality:
Know and obey relevant laws and institutional and governmental policies.
Animal Care:
Show proper respect and care for animals when using them in research. Do not conduct unnecessary or poorly designed animal experiments.
Human Subjects Protection:
When conducting research on human subjects, minimize harms and risks and maximize benefits; respect human dignity, privacy, and autonomy.
Source:
What is Ethics in Research & Why is it Important? U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
What are research misconducts?
(a) Fabrication - making up data or results and recording or reporting them.
(b) Falsification - manipulating research materials, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.
(c) Plagiarism - the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.
(d) Research misconduct does not include honest error or differences of opinion.
Source: Definition of Research Misconduct
The Office of Research Integrity, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Yale School of Medicine Professor Robert Levine spoke on guidelines for human subjects protection.
Video from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD-YCDE_5yw
Research Ethics and Integrity for Social Scientists by 
