A study of researchers’ recognition of research integrity and scientific misconduct in the workplace in Tertiary Hospital / 中华医学科研管理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:The study aimed to determine researchers’ awareness on research integrity and scientific misconduct in the workplace in Tertiary Hospital.Methods:The electronic questionnaire was distributed to 278 researchers in 3 Tertiary Hospitals. Information collected included the demographic characteristics, the awareness of research integrity, attitude to scientific misconduct, occurrence of misconduct among colleagues and possible intentions of misconduct behaviors.Results:Questionnaires of 217 researchers were analyzed in this paper. Less than 20% of respondents were familiar with the definition of research integrity, fabrication, falsification, and so on. Regarding attitude towards scientific misconduct, less than 50% of respondents would like to stop the behavior, report to regulatory authorities if scientific misconduct was identified. Less than 50% of respondents agreed that all the authors should be punished if the paper was involved in scientific misconduct. 49.31% of researchers admitted that their colleagues had committed at least one of the nine listed forms of scientific misconduct. 37.33% of researchers admitted that their colleagues had admitted at least one of the FFP behaviors. Inappropriate authorship was the most common issue of scientific misconduct according to the study findings. Statistical analysis showed that the cognition of research integrity was negatively correlated with scientific misconduct intention.Conclusions:Researchers’ awareness on research integrity and scientific misconduct in workplace in Tertiary hospital was worrisome. A multi-faceted approach towards the issue will be required.