In a research context, one person fills many data-collection forms without…

Concept

Research misconduct is classified by what happens to evidence or authorship. Fabrication creates data that never existed; falsification alters existing research materials, processes, or records; plagiarism misappropriates another person’s work.

Application

Here, one person fills many data-collection forms without collecting genuine responses. The entries are invented and recorded as if they were observed, so the act is fabrication.

Contrast

• Falsification changes or omits existing observations; the scenario instead describes entries created without observations.

• Plagiarism uses another person’s ideas or words without credit; the scenario concerns invented records rather than borrowed authorship.

• A conflict of interest involves competing interests that may influence judgment; it does not itself describe how data were created.

Cross-check

The classification test asks whether data existed before the misconduct. Because no genuine input existed and records were nonetheless completed, fabrication is the fitting category.

Result: Fabrication.