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Fostering Integrity in Research (2017) / Chapter Skim
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11 Findings and Recommendations
Pages 205-224

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From page 205...
... UNDERSTANDING THE ISSUES Changing Environment A number of changes in the research environment that were identified in the early 1990s as problematic for maintaining principles of research integrity and good scientific practices have generally continued along their long-term trend 205
From page 206...
... Updating Concepts: The Role of Detrimental Research Practices Much of the discussion, thinking, and actions aimed at fostering research integrity has revolved around the actions of miscreant individuals in committing acts of research misconduct and its components -- fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. Actions that Responsible Science characterized as questionable research practices have received less attention.
From page 207...
... Such cases cause direct harm and also damage societal trust in the research endeavor. Beyond questions of needless human suffering, the total scale of monetary costs from research misconduct and detrimental research practices may run from several hundred million dollars up to multiple billions of dollars per year in the United States alone.1 Some of the actions and approaches needed to foster integrity recommended below do not have major costs associated with them.
From page 208...
... While addressing larger structural issues in U.S. research funding and organization is beyond the scope of this study, more research on the causes of research misconduct and detrimental research practices is needed to develop better strategies for prevention, as well as specific steps to assess the integrity of research environments and to act on the findings of such assessments to implement good practices and foster sound research environments.
From page 209...
... In particular, through its examination of current practices advancing research integrity and responses to deviations, the committee became aware of variations in federal approaches to the evaluation of plagiarism that need to be harmonized. The following findings and recommendations are intended to serve as a framework for actions that will improve knowledge of research misconduct, detrimental research practices, and contributing factors; strengthen approaches to addressing them; and ultimately lead to a significant reduction or even elimination of these behaviors and the risks that they pose to the research enterprise.
From page 210...
... RECOMMENDATION TWO: Since research institutions play a central role in fostering research integrity and addressing current threats, they should maintain the highest standards for research conduct, going beyond simple compliance with federal regulations in undertaking research misconduct investigations and in other areas. In order to maintain the highest standards for research conduct, research institutions need to exercise vigilance in several distinct areas:
From page 211...
... will play a central role in determining how well the research enterprise as a whole fosters research integrity and addresses current threats. Institutions can undertake this important work collaboratively -- through related organizations and associations -- as well as in partnership with other stakeholders, such as federal and private research sponsors and science, engineering, technology, and medical journal and book publishers.
From page 212...
... Research institutions also have an obligation to implement improvements to their research environments based on the knowledge gained in these assessments. Recent efforts involving assessment of research integrity climates and sharing of information among departments and peer institutions have yielded important insights.
From page 213...
... Institutional leaders are also in the best position to implement changes based on the results of research integrity climate assessments, and they can communicate directly and regularly institutional standards and expectations as well as the importance of the quality of research conducted under institutional auspices. RECOMMENDATION THREE: Research institutions and federal agencies should work to ensure that good-faith whistleblowers are protected and that their concerns are assessed and addressed in a fair, thorough, and timely manner.
From page 214...
... The RIAB will work with all stakeholders in the research enterprise -- researchers, research institutions, research sponsors and regulators, journals, and scientific societies -- to share expertise and approaches for addressing and minimizing research misconduct and detrimen tal research practices. The RIAB will also foster research integrity by stimulating efforts to assess research environments and to im prove practices and standards.
From page 215...
... Further discussion of the RIAB and consideration of alternatives is contained in Chapter 8. FINDING B: Ensuring greater openness and accountability in science is essential to fostering research integrity and improving research quality.
From page 216...
... Authorship practices are a fundamental component of the research enterprise's operation, and observance of good practices is a key factor in ensuring research integrity. Authorship crucially designates who bears responsibility for the work.
From page 217...
... Universal condemnation (i.e., by all disciplines) of gift or honorary authorship, coercive authorship, and ghost authorship would also contribute to changing the culture of research environments where these practices are still accepted.
From page 218...
... A research process that uses computational tools and digital data introduces myriad new potential sources of error: Were the methods described in the paper transcribed correctly into computer code? What were the parameter settings, input data, and function invocation sequences?
From page 219...
... RECOMMENDATION SEVEN: Federal funding agencies and other research sponsors should allocate sufficient funds to enable the long-term storage, archiving, and access of datasets and code necessary for the replication of published findings. Preparing data and code for release can be expensive and time-consuming.
From page 220...
... . In extreme cases, where nearly identical experiments are run a number of times with one positive result being reported and multiple negative results discarded, the failure to report negative results constitutes a detrimental research practice (Couzin-Frankel, 2013)
From page 221...
... FINDING C: Improved strategies for fostering research integrity and for addressing threats to integrity posed by research misconduct and detrimental research practices need to be based on knowledge and evi dence that does not currently exist. Investments are needed in research that improves understanding of key issues such as the relationship between structural conditions in science and the tendency for individu als to practice research according to the values and norms of integrity or to deviate from those values and norms.
From page 222...
... Also, detrimental research practices are more widespread and may ultimately be more damaging to the research enterprise than research misconduct, which points to the need to address challenges to research integrity more broadly. In addition, trends in some indicators -- such as declining success rates for grant applications, and an increasing ratio of PhD production to available faculty positions -- raise the possibility that both local organizational environments and the broader structural arrangements of research are moving in directions that might threaten research integrity.
From page 223...
... Evidence developed to date indicates that much remains to be learned about the approaches that are most effective. RCR education should be looked to as a key element in strategies to promote integrity, but perhaps not as a primary means of addressing research misconduct and detrimental research practices in the short term.
From page 224...
... Given that research misconduct, detrimental research practices, and the need to foster research integrity are challenges facing all countries that fund and perform research, the global research enterprise will benefit from the knowledge gained from the research agenda outlined under Finding C, above. Expanding this research agenda to a global scale would be beneficial to all.


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