Ethical and efficient research management: A new challenge for an old problem

Abstract

Scientific misconduct and questionable research practices occur on occasion because scientific research is performed by human beings. With growing pressure to produce results, competition for limited resources and in a well-informed society, however, the number of reported cases has increased more than 10 fold in 10 years. Moreover, the impact of cases of fraud, poor quality of data and unethical research management is high and scientists are concerned by this phenomenon. Codes of conduct and investigations for misconduct are in place in most fields. Preventive actions however are difficult to conduct because managerial tools are missing or unknown by scientists. Here we describe the concept of Ethical and efficient research management and its use for preventive measures against bad research practice. The concept is based on the belief that sustainable management of a research team, project or collaboration is not possible without ethical conduct of management. Ethical and efficient research and research management are thus intrinsically connected. The Inserm-Quality-Network (Riq), uses currently management tools for different purposes: organization, quality management, quality control, knowledge management, project management and so forth and has adapted them for purpose of good research practice (http://extranet.inserm.fr/demarche-qualite/reseau-inserm-qualite).