Leaders of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) "strongly" objected this week to plans by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) to gauge misconduct by polling 3,000 principal investigators early next year.
The ORI survey questions expand unduly on the classic definition of research misconduct – fabrication, falsification and plagiarism (FF&P) – and are ambiguous and subjective, according to a November 12 letter signed by FASEB president Steven Teitelbaum and AAMC chief Jordan Cohen.
ORI is the branch of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) charged with overseeing scientific misconduct probes, and contracted with the Gallup Organization to conduct the poll as part of a larger program of research into research integrity. FASEB and AAMC made their comments as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is reviewing the proposed survey.
From the start, ORI said ...
