45 CFR § 689.1 - Definitions.

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t45/s689.1"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "45 CFR § 689.1 - Definitions."
title_number: 45
title_name: "Public Welfare"
section_number: "689.1"
section_name: "Definitions."
chapter_name: "NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION"
part_number: "689"
part_name: "RESEARCH MISCONDUCT"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-04-05"
last_updated: "2026-04-05"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
authority: "42 U.S.C. 1870(a)."
regulatory_source: "67 FR 11937, Mar. 18, 2002, unless otherwise noted."
cfr_part: "689"
---


# 689.1 Definitions.

The following definitions apply to this part:

(a) *Research misconduct* means fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing or performing research funded by NSF, reviewing research proposals submitted to NSF, or in reporting research results funded by NSF.

(1) *Fabrication* means making up data or results and recording or reporting them.

(2) *Falsification* means manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.

(3) *Plagiarism* means the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit.

(4) *Research,* for purposes of paragraph (a) of this section, includes proposals submitted to NSF in all fields of science, engineering, mathematics, and education and results from such proposals.

(b) *Research misconduct* does not include honest error or differences of opinion.