Research and Publication Ethics: A Mandate Process in ChatGPT and the AI Era

Abstract

Civic societies cannot be developed in the absence of ethics. Therefore, it is the demand of the time to follow. When the government of any country makes a process mandate, it means something is going in the wrong direction, and to maintain quality, we are forced to follow the process mandate. In ancient times, ethics was being followed by civic societies and academic societies in a foolproof manner because things were in their initial stage and marching towards maturity. Therefore, through this process, we could have accumulated an ocean of knowledge in the form of documented literature. Gradually, access to the literature was available to all. For better, more qualitative, and prompt services, tools were developed. These tools made the literature available at the fingertips of end users. In the present time, technology is so fast, even at jet speed. As of now, we are enjoying the ChatGPT and AI technology, which are capable enough to address any query. Hence, technology is the main reason that compelled the government to implement research and publication ethics among the academic and research societies to control the production of duplicate content. In the present paper, we will discuss the open-access web platforms and the University Grants Commission Regulations 2018 regarding academic integrity, UGC CARE List and others so that we may understand the exact meaning of ethics in research and how to maintain it in the presence of technology. In the present time, predatory publications are available in the market, and it has been observed that scholars may get trapped, which is a serious concern for the HEIs and government because fake publications are totally useless and are never indexed by any indexing agencies. Therefore, through this paper, we will try to elicit the facts that are responsible for breaching ethics and to control what different agencies are doing.