A Qualitative Analysis of the Causes and Consequences of Research Misconduct Among Early‐Career Faculty Members: A Large Public University in Iran

ABSTRACT A grounded‐theory study reveals how structural pressures and proximate incentives produce research misconduct among early‐career faculty in Iranian universities. Using 54 semi‐structured interviews (36 doctoral candidates, 10 early‐career faculty, 8 senior professors) and coded official news reports, we used open, axial and selective coding to build a processual model. Distal factors—political pressure, underfunding, unequal infrastructure, regional disparities—interact with proximal drivers: publication‐quantity incentives, intense competition, normalized cheating and academic exploitation. Emergent mechanisms (manuscript‐writing markets, unregulated AI) amplify fabrication, plagiarism and honorary authorship. Harms span individual (psychological strain), organizational (credibility loss, entrenched corruption) and national (erosion of R&D capacity) levels. The study extends empirical focus beyond biomedical fields to social, behavioural and engineering disciplines in an LMIC and proposes policy and practical interventions: revise evaluation criteria, strengthen oversight and training and support vulnerable researchers. Limitations: small, imbalanced qualitative sample; larger, geographically and disciplinarily diverse mixed‐methods studies are recommended.