It should go without saying that research misconduct is damaging to the pursuit of knowledge. In identifying "honesty" as one of the few universal ethical standards in science, David Resnik points out that research results are useless to us if we cannot trust their authenticity (Resnik, 1998).

Beyond conducting research with integrity, it is also important to maintain the appearance of conducting research with integrity. Sometimes this requirement is more stringent than maintaining integrity itself since it may require procedures whose purpose is not just to ensure that we have acted appropriately, but also to allow us to document our actions to prove that we have. Maintaining the appearance of integrity as well as maintaining integrity itself are integral parts of cultivating public confidence in the work that we do. If society trusts the research we do, then societal decisions are more likely to be influenced by this factual basis.