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3 CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT
Pages 67-79

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From page 67...
... The organizational structures within which research is supported and performed, the climate within which research is conducted, and the criteria that define scientific achievement today are quite different from those that were in place previously. The uniquely American multipurpose university was firmly established in the United States by 1890 and thereafter was gradually augmented by professional schools and institutes of technology (Geiger, 1990~.
From page 68...
... The Bush report inspired a postwar relationship between government and the scientific community that sought to extend the successes of both government-organized projects such as the Manhattan Project and university-based research such as that performed at the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both models of scientific work were eventually implemented, and the Bush report provided the blueprint for continued federal support of academic science through a decentralized process driven by investigator-initiated research proposals, eventually institutionalized with the establishment of the National Science Foundation in 1950.
From page 69...
... THE CHANGING RESEARCH SCENE Many factors have contributed to the evolving research scene, including the increasing complexity of contemporary research problems and instrumentation, the increasing costs of scientific research, changes in the rationale for supporting and monitoring governmentfunded research, and increased regulation of federal research. Other principal factors affecting the research environment include the scale, scope, and organization of research centers and groups; the changing character of collaborative efforts; the growing number of contenders for research funds; the reward system; and increasing emphasis on commercialization of research results.
From page 70...
... But some complaints may simply reflect a poor research environment rather than actual misconduct in science. The best way to avoid or minimize research disputes is to establish a proper research environment.
From page 71...
... The increase in proposals per investigator is probably related to the strategy of submitting multiple proposals to increase the likelihood of funding.2 The number of science and engineering articles published by academic scientists and engineers has doubled since 1965, with continued rapid growth through 1980 (NSF, l990c)
From page 72...
... Scientific advances in this field and others show that specialized collaborations can work effectively and are often indispensable to advancing knowledge. Nevertheless, the complexity of such operations, and the fact that many of the participants have limited personal interactions as well as limited abilities to evaluate the qualifications of others with different kinds of expertise' can give rise on occasion to conflicts and serious misunderstandings and can limit the effective operation of internal checks and balances.
From page 73...
... Research investigators in such organizations include tenured and junior faculty members, visiting scientists, nonfaculty research scientists, postdoctoral research fellows, graduate students, and tech .
From page 74...
... In a few laboratories, research directors may discourage collegial discussion of new results or interpretation of findings or may foster competitive practices by assigning junior researchers to identical research problems. Regulation and Accountability Scientific research is increasingly subject to government regulations and guidelines that impose financial and administrative requirements and affect specific elements of the research process as well.
From page 75...
... However, there appears to be an imbalance, with emphasis on publication output and research support as the basis for promotion and tenure (Boyer, 1990~.4 Quantitative measures of productivity have occasionally become substitutes for the critical evaluation of scientific work. This reliance on numbers arises in part because departmental peers are less able to evaluate the contribution of an individual researcher to large scientific projects or to interdisciplinary teams with an applied research approach.
From page 76...
... University-industry partnerships stimulate new ideas and innovation by both communities and motivate research teams to achieve important innovations of commercial value. But commercial relationships may introduce conflicts for academic investigators and the university.
From page 77...
... For this reason, some scientific journals require authors to disclose sources of support and potential sources of bias when submitting their research papers.5 Such conflicts also can influence the investigation of allegations of misconduct in science, especially if biases are not detected in the formation of investigatory panels that review and adjudicate misconduct complaints. Although the panel does not believe that industry-university research arrangements present unique risks for misconduct in science, the self-serving interests associated with such arrangements pose issues that require institutional attention and oversight to ensure the integrity of the research process.
From page 78...
... · The growth and diversity of modern research call for institutions to accept explicit responsibility for fostering the integrity of the research process and for handling allegations of misconduct. In encouraging this acceptance, the panel is not suggesting that institutions assume responsibility for the correctness and accuracy of research results reported by their scientists or students.
From page 79...
... · The research environment is stressful and yet conducive to the remarkable productivity of researchers. The rewards for successful research are greater now than in the past, but today's rapid pace of development may undermine critical internal checks and balances and may increase opportunities for misrepresentation or distortion of research results.


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