Research Guide
NHMRC 2018 Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) 2018 Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research is basically a rulebook for how not to be a dodgy scientist. Think of it as the operating system for research integrity in Australia.
Here is the compressed, ADHD-friendly version: 8 principles for research humans.
The Australian Research Code (2018) — Ultra-Compressed Version
P1. Be Honest
Meaning: Report what actually happened.
Example: If your experiment failed, you report the failure. You do not quietly delete weird data points.
Why: Science is cumulative. Fake bricks make the whole wall collapse.
Memory hook: No Photoshop for data.
P2. Be Rigorous
Meaning: Use proper methods and keep good records.
Example: Save experiment settings, code versions, and raw data, not just the final graph.
Why: Someone else should be able to reproduce your work.
Memory hook: Leave a trail of breadcrumbs.
P3. Be Transparent
Meaning: Explain how the research was done and who contributed.
Example: List collaborators, disclose funding sources, and show methodology.
Why: Hidden interests distort knowledge.
Memory hook: No invisible strings.
P4. Respect People, Animals, and Culture
Meaning: Research must not harm participants, animals, or cultural communities.
Example: Human ethics approval, Indigenous consultation, and humane animal protocols.
Why: Knowledge is not worth unethical harm.
Memory hook: No sacrificing people for papers.
P5. Acknowledge Everyone's Work
Meaning: Give credit properly.
Example: Cite sources and include contributors as authors when appropriate.
Why: Ideas have lineage. Intellectual theft corrupts the system.
Memory hook: Cite or it is a heist.
P6. Manage Data Properly
Meaning: Store research data securely and retain it long enough.
Example: Keep datasets and notebooks for years after publication.
Why: Findings can be checked later.
Memory hook: Do not throw away the receipts.
P7. Call Out Misconduct
Meaning: Institutions must investigate cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and related breaches.
Example: If someone fakes results, there must be a process to investigate.
Why: Integrity systems only work if violations have consequences.
Memory hook: If the lab is cooking numbers, someone rings the alarm.
P8. Promote a Culture of Responsible Research
Meaning: Everyone should actively build and support good research practice, not just avoid misconduct.
Example: Mentoring students, documenting workflows, and normalising open discussion about ethics and methods.
Why: Integrity lasts when the culture rewards good practice before problems happen.
Memory hook: Build the lab culture you want to inherit.
The 3 Big Sins (Research Misconduct)
- Fabrication — making up data.
- Falsification — manipulating or deleting data to force a result.
- Plagiarism — stealing text, ideas, or results.
A Simple Mental Model
- Honesty: The steel must be real.
- Rigour: The engineering must work.
- Transparency: Everyone sees how it was built.
- Respect: Do not build it with slave labour.
- Attribution: Credit the engineers.
- Data stewardship: Keep the blueprints.
- Accountability: Inspect the bridge.
- Promotion: Train the next engineers to build it right.
One-Sentence Version
Research must be honest, careful, transparent, respectful, crediting others, well documented, accountable, and actively promoted as a shared culture.
For MFA / HDR Context
What ethics offices usually care about in practice:
- No fabricated research or fake citations.
- Proper attribution of sources.
- Ethical treatment of participants.
- Transparency about AI use.
- Keeping research data and notes.
Most PhD students pass this by being organised and not pretending things happened that did not.