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Slippery slope to research misconduct

Slippery Slope

It’s not always easy or clear how to follow the principles, guidelines or regulations. As a result, there are situations where good research practices are at risk. This tool calls these situations “Slippery Slopes” – a ‘heads up’ to make you aware of the risks. For each slippery slope the tool also tries to provide an answer or solution. But every research setting is different so if you recognise a situation (throughout the tool) and you need extra information, don’t hesitate to contact your research integrity officer. You can find their references at the end of the training and in the contact information of this course.

mindthegap

Researcher: “I only read news articles about integrity and misconduct in life sciences but I don’t work in that discipline so why is this relevant for me?”

mindthegap

It’s more nuanced than that. While it seems that research misconduct is more prevalent in life sciences and medicine, several points can be made to mitigate this impression. First, the life sciences have the largest number of researchers, often working on the biggest projects. Second, because of the way techniques for detecting misconduct work, it is relatively ‘easy’ to focus on specific forms of misconduct, e.g. image manipulation. However, the type of images that are at risk of manipulation happen to be widely used in the life sciences. Finally, the integrity issues that arise most frequently relate to 1) plagiarism, of which most cases arise in the social sciences and 2) co-authorship issues of which most cases occur in life sciences. (Fanelli, 2009).

mindthegap

To conclude, there are no specific problematic disciplines, they all have their own different issues. This means all researchers have a responsibility to be aware of and uphold research integrity.

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Professor: “I’m a senior researcher so I am experienced enough not to make these kind of mistakes.”

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For example:

(2016) Centre of Innovation, Leiden University – On being a scientist (afl. 4). To be clear: only the first part of this video is an example of this slippery slope. The last scenes are part of another storyline.
mindthegap

Research is not (yet) clear on sub-group differences when it comes to research misconduct. Many observers suggest that junior researchers are most vulnerable to becoming involved in misconduct, partly because of their tenuous and highly dependent position, or possible lack of experience. However, other research presents a more nuanced view by pointing at different types of unacceptable behaviour, some of which occur more frequently among midlevel and senior researchers. Observers point to the opportunities to misbehave and the (perception of the) possibility of getting caught and experiencing (severe) consequences. Senior researchers can help prevent those mistakes because they hold positions that makes them exemplars for the rest of the research community.