Correspondence

摘要

As heads of funding bodies for medical research, we are concerned that questionable practices among researchers seem to be becoming more prevalent. Although these do not meet current definitions of misconduct, they can still distort biomedical science and cause irre-producibility - with potentially critical consequences for policies and patients. For example, researchers may cut corners by withholding methodological details or by failing to disclose data for independent scrutiny. Inadequate training can also be responsible for false conclusions arising from flawed experimental design, methodology or statistical analysis. Some countries, including Australia, Canada and the Netherlands, have a category for these - 'poor conduct'. This must be addressed if proved, even though it is less egregious than research misconduct.