TY - JOUR
T1 - Scholars’ preferred solutions for research misconduct
T2 - results from a survey of faculty members at America’s top 100 research universities
AU - Pratt, Travis C.
AU - Reisig, Michael D.
AU - Holtfreter, Kristy
AU - Golladay, Katelyn A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Research Integrity (Grant No. ORIIR160028-04-00 and ORIIR150018-01). The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Health and Human Services. The authors would like to thank Marcus Berzofsky and Susan Metosky for their helpful comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Copyright © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2019/10/3
Y1 - 2019/10/3
N2 - Research misconduct is harmful because it threatens public health and public safety, and also undermines public confidence in science. Efforts to eradicate ongoing and prevent future misconduct are numerous and varied, yet the question of “what works” remains largely unanswered. To shed light on this issue, this study used data from both mail and online surveys administered to a stratified random sample of tenured and tenure-track faculty members (N = 613) in the social, natural, and applied sciences at America’s top 100 research universities. Participants were asked to gauge the effectiveness of various intervention strategies: formal sanctions (professional and legal), informal sanctions (peers), prevention efforts (ethics and professional training), and reducing the pressures associated with working in research-intensive units. Results indicated that (1) formal sanctions received the highest level of support, (2) female scholars and researchers working in the applied sciences favored formal sanctions, and (3) a nontrivial portion of the sample supported an integrated approach that combined elements of different strategies. A key takeaway for university administrators is that a multifaceted approach to dealing with the problem of research misconduct, which prominently features enhanced formal sanctions, will be met with the support of university faculty.
AB - Research misconduct is harmful because it threatens public health and public safety, and also undermines public confidence in science. Efforts to eradicate ongoing and prevent future misconduct are numerous and varied, yet the question of “what works” remains largely unanswered. To shed light on this issue, this study used data from both mail and online surveys administered to a stratified random sample of tenured and tenure-track faculty members (N = 613) in the social, natural, and applied sciences at America’s top 100 research universities. Participants were asked to gauge the effectiveness of various intervention strategies: formal sanctions (professional and legal), informal sanctions (peers), prevention efforts (ethics and professional training), and reducing the pressures associated with working in research-intensive units. Results indicated that (1) formal sanctions received the highest level of support, (2) female scholars and researchers working in the applied sciences favored formal sanctions, and (3) a nontrivial portion of the sample supported an integrated approach that combined elements of different strategies. A key takeaway for university administrators is that a multifaceted approach to dealing with the problem of research misconduct, which prominently features enhanced formal sanctions, will be met with the support of university faculty.
KW - Research misconduct
KW - academic integrity
KW - deviant behavior
KW - research fraud
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U2 - 10.1080/10508422.2019.1612748
DO - 10.1080/10508422.2019.1612748
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85066035863
SN - 1050-8422
VL - 29
SP - 510
EP - 530
JO - Ethics and Behavior
JF - Ethics and Behavior
IS - 7
ER -