Research Incentives in Academia Leading to Unethical Behavior.

A current practice in academia is to reward researchers for achieving outstanding performance. Although intended to boost productivity, such a practice also promotes competitiveness and could lead to unethical behavior. This position paper exposes common misconducts that arise when researchers try to game the system. It calls the research community to take preventive actions to reduce misconduct and treat such a pervasive environment with proper acknowledgment of researchers' efforts and rewards on quality rather than quantity.