Analysis of Whistleblowing in Academia

This paper aims to describe the status of whistleblowing channels in academic institutions as well as the perception that academics have towards the act of reporting unethical issues. Due to European legislation, organizations are obliged to provide reporting mechanisms. Our results show that a large number of individuals within the academic context suffer unethical issues. These results may trigger the possibility that academic institutions have been failing (i) to provide robust mechanisms to identify and investigate unethical behaviors in academia and (ii) to disseminate/discuss the act of reporting within students and staff. Taking into consideration the results and the reality that exists in academic institutions where demanding workload and stress promote environments where retaliations are expected, the authors discuss needs that institutions need to reflect on regarding compliance, integrity and ethics as well as forensic evidence that can be used in investigations in order to provide a safe space to report unethical issues that are observed or experienced.