Abstract
BackgroundConcerns about research misbehavior in academic science have sparked interest in the factors that may explain research misbehavior. Often three clusters of factors are distinguished: individual factors, climate factors and publication factors. Our research question was: to what extent can individual, climate and publication factors explain the variance in frequently perceived research misbehaviors?MethodsFrom May 2017 until July 2017, we conducted a survey study among academic researchers in Amsterdam. The survey included three measurement instruments that we previously reported individual results of and here we integrate these findings.ResultsOne thousand two hundred ninety-eight researchers completed the survey (response rate: 17%). Results showed that individual, climate and publication factors combined explained 34% of variance in perceived frequency of research misbehavior. Individual factors explained 7%, climate factors explained 22% and publication factors 16%.ConclusionsOur results suggest that the perceptions of the research climate play a substantial role in explaining variance in research misbehavior. This suggests that efforts to improve departmental norms might have a salutary effect on behavior.
Highlights
Concerns about research misbehavior in academic science have sparked interest in the factors that may explain research misbehavior
Research misbehavior includes a broad array of behaviors, some of which may invalidate research results, some that damage trust in science, and others that may deny credit to those to whom credit is due in ways that may hamper their career progression, possibly leading to their exit from the scientific workforce and the loss of highly talented individuals [5]
Individual factors as a cluster explain 7% of variance in perceived frequency of research misbehaviors, climate factors as a cluster explain 22% of variance and publication factors as a cluster explain 16% of variance in perceived frequency of research misbehaviors
Summary
Concerns about research misbehavior in academic science have sparked interest in the factors that may explain research misbehavior. Research misbehavior includes a broad array of behaviors, some of which may invalidate research results, some that damage trust in science, and others that may deny credit to those to whom credit is due in ways that may hamper their career progression, possibly leading to their exit from the scientific workforce and the loss of highly talented individuals [5]. These behaviors range in “severity” or “seriousness” from research misconduct (fabrication, falsification and plagiarism, RM) to “lesser” forms of misbehavior usually termed questionable or detrimental research practices (: QRP) [6]. Examples of publication system factors are the perceived publication stress among academic researchers and their attitudes towards the current publication system governing academic research
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