Background: The increase in research Misconduct among Iranian researchers has become challenging in recent years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the researcher’s experiences about the reasons of research Misconduct and their proposed strategies to prevent them.Method: This was a relational content analysis study using purposeful sampling. In this study, 10 non-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with PhD students. Data were analyzed using open code software.Result: We extracted three main categories from the data including research Misconduct situations, reasons and strategies to control them. The quantity based evaluation system, not being aware of the rules, and lack of clear rules for the journals were important reasons for the research Misconduct. Establishing quality based evaluation systems, improving morals and rule awareness, establishing a system to identify violations and setting clear rules for the journals were the proposed strategies to control research Misconduct.Conclusion: Research Misconduct in Iran has become a major concern of researchers and necessary actions should be taken.

During the last year we had observed different types of Misconduct in the submitted manuscripts into the editorial office. Those are included attempted theft of data, presence of ghost authors, gift authorship, dual submissions, salami publications, falsification and some other types of fraud. Our analysis in the editorial office led us to conclude that research fraud is an important issue and should be discussed clearly. The emphasis on competition and pressure to produce published materials, while internal intention to discover the scientific truth may foster a conflict between personal career goals and human intellectual motivation; finally may induce research Misconduct. Having accurate and good knowledge in this field is mandatory for researchers especially the younger ones. In the first part of this article we will discuss a short but important part of the history of this problem and in the second part definition and editorial response will be reviewed.

There are many factors to reflect moderate Misconducts as cultural, social, political and economical. Nevertheless, the explanations to these behaviors can be linked to other psychological concepts such as: social values, life style, social capital and communicative ties. This research seeks to investigate reasons to moderate Misconducts via OLS Regression and the impact of independent variables on dependant ones.First, an analytical model was drawn through descriptional and inferential process assisted by moderate Misconduct, mild cultural Misconducts and social capital theories. Then, some hypotheses were identified and tested based on an analytical framework and acceptable Alpha of .83. Results indicated that the regression equation to factor analysis of variables and the logical regression with the value of Adjusted R2=.54 F value in one percent Alpha level of regression model; and also independent variables had an apparent role in moderate Misconducts.