Abstract:

Within the academic world, the vastness of research methods and intellectual innovation is overwhelming. Without moral principles and rules, without well-established limits, scientific research may suffer in terms of both originality and high quality of the endeavor. Violating the well-established principles of deontology in the field of scientific research may lead to unwanted results. There are different opinions and visions regarding the concept of originality of an intellectual creation, depending on its type and on the nature of the field of affiliation, as well as due to the variations of the legislative framework regarding intellectual property in every country. At the international level there is a constant need for uniformity in this regard, as the products of scientific research are far from being interesting just at national level. A researcher has the right to publish his or her results in the international arena, which means that all researchers around the world must respect the same unanimously accepted limits. Lessons learned by the institutions in which such activities take place should be shared internationally in order for academics and students not only to learn and implement the positive aspects identified, but also to identify some vulnerabilities that may occur and prevent error. The main objective of our research was to emphasize the fact that the study of ethics and academic integrity is essential in order to teach our students to produce high quality scientific papers and respect international standards in research. Actually, the study of specific aspects of ethics and academic integrity lies at the foundation of higher education. Only starting from the study of ethics and academic integrity will one be able to go further to the methodology of scientific research. It is well known that an original scientific work involves the creative intellectual effort of its author who, using a set of research methods and techniques, gives a certain shape to his/her creation, aiming for it to have a unique character, both in the form of expression and the structure of the work. The present scientific approach is based on a combination of two research methods, heuristic and metaheuristic, respectively. Our endeavor relied on the analysis of both classical and unconventional methods, from the category of heuristic methods, in order to identify the perfectible aspects. The methodology used mainly involved a direct analysis based on a questionnaire applied to a significant number of students, as well as a comparative analysis of current situations in the higher university education in this regard. Thus the questionnaire allowed us to analyze the opinions expressed by our students which, adding up to our experience as teachers working in higher military education resulted in our identification of aspects that can be improved so as to achieve high quality “products” specific to scientific research. Our study enabled us to make a series of proposals that may support increasing the quality of scientific research deliverables in our university and allowing a further raise in standards of academic research. Moreover, the conclusions showed that the rules and norms of ethics in scientific research must be constantly updated with current requirements and constantly reviewed research methods and techniques, so as to provide the officer-student/researcher with consistent and modern means of action.

Keywords:

Ethics, scientific research, research methods, deontology.