In an era characterized by rapid knowledge production, global collaboration, and data-intensive research, the integrity, transparency, and trustworthiness of academic research systems have emerged as critical concerns. Issues such as data fabrication, publication bias, authorship disputes, predatory publishing, and opaque peer-review mechanisms have increasingly challenged the credibility of scholarly communication and innovation networks. Within this context, blockchain technology has gained attention as a transformative digital infrastructure capable of redefining trust, accountability, and transparency in academic research and innovation ecosystems. This study explores the role of blockchain-enabled systems in strengthening research governance, enhancing collaboration, and ensuring ethical knowledge production across interdisciplinary and institutional boundaries.
Blockchain, as a decentralized and immutable distributed ledger technology, introduces a fundamentally new paradigm for managing research data, intellectual property, and academic workflows. Unlike centralized databases that rely on institutional authority and intermediaries, blockchain systems operate on cryptographic verification, consensus mechanisms, and transparent record-keeping. This shift enables research activities—such as data collection, hypothesis registration, peer review, funding allocation, authorship attribution, and technology transfer—to be securely recorded, time-stamped, and auditable across the entire research lifecycle. The abstract argues that blockchain does not merely