“A Lie Cannot Live”: How Research Misconduct Allegations Could Become Weaponised in Academia

In this article, we discuss the emerging prominence of ‘strategic lawsuits against public participation’ (SLAPPs) across Europe and the United Kingdom as mechanisms for chilling academic discourse, particularly around topics considered unpalatable to foreign governments. We argue that the increased prominence of SLAPPs foreshadows a new form of abuse of legal process against universities that attempt to protect their researchers: vexatious or malicious complaints of research misconduct against academics and universities, using what we term here as ‘strategic complaints against researchers’ (SCAR). Identifying the possibility of SCARs as an emergent form of procedural abuse will assist universities in formulating policies and practices that separate legitimate grievances from acts of foreign interference. Together with government, funding agencies and industry partners, the higher education sector should take the lead in focusing research misconduct standards on identifying, triaging, and (where necessary) eliminating abuses of the research misconduct system aimed at chilling academic inquiry.