Impact of a Publication Ethics Orientation Program on the Knowledge and Attitude of Postgraduate Students of Health Sciences

Introduction: Pressure to publish and for better academic recognition, issues of publication misconduct like plagiarism, data fabrication and falsification, authorship disputes, conflict of interest, redundant and salami publications are on rise. A capacity building program on publication ethics for postgraduate students who are still young as researchers can be beneficial for them to get sensitised to ethical issues related to publishing. Aim: To assess the impact of orientation program on the knowledge and attitude of postgraduate students towards "Publication Ethics". Materials and Methods: This is an educational interventional study where postgraduate students were given an orientation on "Publication Ethics". A semi-structured questionnaire was designed to assess students' level of knowledge and attitude regarding publication ethics which was administered before and after the program to assess its impact. Frequency and percentage of study participants' demographic profile and participants' responses to various statements was calculated. Chi-square test was used to compare the pre- and post-intervention knowledge of study participants regarding different aspects of "Publication Ethics". Results: The mean age of 143 participants was 27.07 +/- 4.56 years and 105 (73.42%) were women. The percentage of participants providing correct responses for different statements used to assess knowledge and attitude of postgraduate students regarding publication ethics increased from 17.47-82.51% before attending the orientation session to 49.64-93% after attending the session. This increase in proportion of participants responding correctly was statistically significant (p<0.05) except for the statements where pre-intervention scores were already higher. Conclusion: A significant post-training improvement was observed in knowledge and attitude regarding publication ethics amongst postgraduate students. As publication misconduct is very common, good publication practices should be promoted in young researchers by conducting such kind of educational interventions regularly.