WIKIMEDIA, CEJISSThis month, collaborators at Saint Louis University and Washington University School of Medicine will host the second workshop of the Restoring Professionalism and Integrity in Research (RePAIR) Program, aimed at helping researchers make better professional decisions by anticipating consequences of actions and effectively managing stress, self-serving biases, compliance obligations, and challenges in the workplace. The National Institutes of Health-funded program, which I direct, was designed by an assortment of psychologists—clinical, developmental, organizational, and social—and involves assessments, a 3-day workshop, and a series of follow up “coaching calls” for investigators who are referred by their institutions for problems with human subjects protections, animal care, or data integrity. Thus far, the program has attracted only biomedical investigators, but it is open to anyone who conducts empirical research.
While the RePAIR program is the first such program for researchers, similar remediation programs exist for physicians accused of unprofessional behaviors, and have successfully helped many professionals learn new skills, change behaviors, and reestablish successful careers. The director of one such program, who currently serves on the RePAIR advisory committee, said to me when I was writing our program proposal, “You’re doing a good thing. You’re going to save careers.” Anyone who has lost a good job knows how important jobs are to our financial, psychological, and overall wellbeing. The investigators who are referred to our program know that their careers are in jeopardy and their reputations have been harmed. They are often suffering deeply.
We are also serving institutions, which cannot tolerate behavior that ...
