Digital Competency and Problem-Solving: Skills for Communication and Collaboration

Scenario:
A graduate student is writing a sociology research paper. In the article, he uses survey data but deliberately omits data that weakens the overall conclusion. He adjusts the graph scale to emphasize a positive trend. In the conclusion section, he claims a causal relationship without statistical evidence.

Tasks:
   1.    Identify the actions that represent data manipulation.
      ●    Why is it unethical to exclude part of the sample without explanation?
   2.    Distinguish between correlation and causation.
      ●    Provide an example where correlation does not imply causation.
      ●    How can one test for a causal relationship?
   3.    Explain how to ethically present research findings.
      ●    What should be included in explanations of statistical data?
      ●    How should limitations and confidence intervals be reported?
   4.    Edit the conclusion paragraph to make it scientifically sound and ethically valid.
   5.    Propose recommendations to prevent manipulations in future research.