Good research practice is important to the scientific community. An awareness of what constitutes poor practice is important. Various types of research misconduct are defined in this article. The extent of research misconduct in the field of radiology has been assessed by contacting five English language radiology journals. Redundant or duplicate publication has been reported infrequently, Radiology (1), American Journal of Roentgenology (3), Clinical Radiology (3), British Journal of Radiology (2) and European Radiology (1). The issue of how the radiology community might tackle research misconduct is discussed with reference to guidance from the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Committee of Publication Ethics.