Table II.
Frequencies of Respondents’ Self-Report of Misbehaviors and Knowledge of Colleagues’ Misbehaviors Grouped Within Defined Misconduct Composites; (self-report=224*; knowledge of colleagues behaviors=278**)
| Misconduct Composite and Associated Misbehaviors | Self-Report n (% of Total) | Knowledge of Colleagues n (% of Total) |
|---|---|---|
| One or more times | One or more times | |
| Circumventing Research Ethics Regulations | ||
| Conducting research involving human subjects without prior approval from a Research Ethics Committee | 39 (18.0) | 73 (26.3) |
| Not obtaining proper informed consent from participants | 37 (17.1) | 97 (34.9) |
| Use of confidential information about research subjects without their authorization | 25 (11.5) | 52 (18.7) |
| Ignoring aspects of animal-subjects research requirements such as care, feeding, etc. | 13 (6.0) | 37 (13.3) |
| Fabrication and Falsification | ||
| Making up research data (fabrication) | 21 (9.7) | 72 (25.9) |
| Changing research data without mentioning it. | 21 (9.7) | 65 (23.4) |
| Dropping “outliers” without mentioning it | 41 (18.9) | 90 (32.4) |
| Selecting only those data that support your hypothesis | 48 (22.1) | 104 (37.4) |
| Plagiarism | ||
| Publishing results that belong to someone else | 14 (6.5) | 55 (19.8) |
| Using someone else’s words or ideas without giving proper credit | 19 (8.8) | 92 (33.1) |
| Submitting a manuscript to a journal that you already published in another Journal | 8 (3.7) | 32 (11.5) |
| Authorship Misconduct | ||
| Giving authorship to someone who has not made a substantive contribution | 40 (18.4) | 105 (37.8) |
| Denying authorship credit to someone who has made a substantive contribution | 11 (5.1) | 55 (19.8) |
| Allowing your name to be put on papers to which you have made little contribution | 18 (8.3) | N/A |
| Conflict of Interest | ||
| Aware of a conflict of but failed to disclose it | 7 (3.2) | 27 (9.7) |
| Compromising the rigor of a study’s design or methodology in response to pressure from a commercial or not-for-profit funding source | 8 (3.7) | 28 (10.1) |
| Inappropriately altering or suppressing research results in response to pressure from a commercial or not-for-profit funding source | 7 (3.2) | 24 (8.6) |
| Other Research Practices | ||
| Ignoring aspects of materials-handling research requirements such as biosafety, radioactive materials, etc. | 33 (15.2) | 63 (22.7) |
| Providing an inappropriately negative or positive letter of recommendation | 11 (5.1) | 46 (16.5) |
| Cutting corners because one was in a hurry to complete a project | 35 (16.1) | 78 (28.1) |
*
respondents with research experience;
**
respondents with and without research experience