WIKIMEDIA, SCHAAR HELMUTIn the late 1980s, on the heels of several high-profile scandals involving misconduct in scientific research, US policy makers initiated a move towards instituting formal instruction about responsible conduct and ethics in research (RCR). “Lack of formal discussion about responsible research practice and the ethics of research is a serious flaw in the professional training of young scientists and clinicians,” the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies stated in 1989. The assumption was that formal RCR training would reduce the incidence of fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism in research. Over the next decade, training programs evolved slowly, and by the turn of the century, RCR instruction for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows was firmly established in policies from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF). Today, RCR training constitutes its own industry, from experts who provide paid consulting on the development of RCR training curricula and programs to companies that specialize in online training modules.
But now, 20-plus years later, it is only fair to ask: Does it work? The simple answer is, “No.” Today, 1 in 3 scientists responding anonymously to surveys admits to “questionable” research practices; research misconduct cases handled by the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI) are at an all-time high; and retractions of scientific papers have increased exponentially since 2005. It should be noted that not all retracted papers involve foul play, but a recent study reported in PNAS surveying 2,047 biomedical and life-science papers revealed that 67 percent of retractions were directly attributable to misconduct. The rapidly rising incidences of retractions and misconduct contribute to erosion of the public trust, and are financially costly. In 2010, researchers estimated that a single misconduct investigation costs ...
