Unethical research Practices: An Empirical Evaluation of ‘Abeg add my Name’ malady in Nigeria
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The controversies related to unethical research practices have engendered significant research interest across the globe. This unethical practice is becoming more pronounced among academics in Nigeria, this tends to affect the research abilities of academics as well as their research outputs. The malady of unethical authorship in Nigeria, particularly from the perspective of honorary authorship and ghost has not attracted sufficient research interest. This study evaluates unethical research practices in Nigeria, with special focus on honorary authorship, ghost authorship and ‘abeg add my name’. The study employs survey research design through the administration of structured questionnaire on the targeted respondents. The total study population was 13,767 academic staff in 31 universities in South-West, Nigeria. These 31 universities are public and private, as well as, being in operation before the year 2010. The researchers applied confidence level of 95% and confidence interval of 6 on the population figure of 13767 using survey system sample size calculation software, a sample size of 262 was derived. 262 copies of questionnaires were administered on the targeted respondents. The findings reveal that some of the respondents’ names have been added to research work, despite the fact that they never took part in the study. Similarly, some respondents agreed that their names have been included in research work that they never took part, just to influence the editor’s and reviewer’s decision. Furthermore, some project supervisors took the lead authorship position, when publishing their students’ projects. It was also found that some people’s names were included, because they funded the cost of publication, without any research input. Most of the respondents were of the view that inclusion of a colleague, who has not made academic contribution to a research, has not improved their research report writing, knowledge in data collection, data analysis and interpretation. It can therefore be concluded that the malady of ‘abeg add my name’ has negatively impacted the research abilities of unethical authors in Nigeria. Furthermore, unethical authorship has led to shallow research outputs of some Nigerian academics, because of the non-input of unethical authors.
Source: Figshare
Authors: Olujuwon, Olutola, I.O, Abimbola, B.G, Popoola,, G.O, Folorunso, B, Amao-Taiwo, O.O, Ige,, Geraldine Njideka, EKPE-IKO, Michael C., DIKE, D Adebukola, ADEBIYI, Benneth Uchenna, EZE
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7084120230
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: