Responsible Science: Ensuring the Integrity of the Research Process, Volume 1

摘要

This report thoughtfully examines the challenges posed in ensuring that thesearch for truth reflects adherence to ethical standards. In recent years, we have learned, sometimes painfully, that not all scientists adhere to this obligation. Reports of falsified research results and plagiarism involving both junior and senior scientists have stimulated doubts and criticism about the ways in which misconduct in science is addressed by the research community. Misconduct in science is now being publicly examined in all of its aspects; how misconduct is defined, the process by which misconduct is discovered, and procedures for judging innocence or guilt and assessing penalties. Also being explored are the appropriate roles of individuals, research institutions, journals, government research agencies, and the legal system. Issues of misconduct and integrity in science present complex questions. These issues require the sustained attention of all members of the research community as well as of leaders in the public and private sector who are concerned with safeguarding the health of science. In this regard ensuring the integrity of the research process is similar to assuring safety in the workplace: it is a process that requires continued participation from all levels of the entire research enterprise--the practitioners, the host institutions, the sponsors in government, and the legislators who provide the funds.