Research on scientific research integrity behavior and knowledge of medical postgraduates

Abstract

Objective To understand the current situation of scientific research integrity level of medical graduate students, the development of integrity education in their universities, to put forward corresponding suggestions for improvement. Methods From December 2015 to March 2016, 128 postgraduates are selected as the participants of the survey by randomized method (123 responded). We conducted a questionnaire survey in four famous medical universities in Beijing, descriptive analytical method was adopted to analyze survey findings. The contents of survey included the status of academic integrity of the current medical students, education of academic integrity in Medical Universities, awareness of scientific integrity and acquisition channel of relevant knowledge. Results According to the survey, the awareness rate of research integrity is not high, scientific misconduct has occurred consciously or unconsciously. By analyzing the access and demands to knowledge of research integrity, we find that related seminars or lecture is the best channel to acquire academic research integrity knowledge, accounting for 61.48%. Followed by the curriculum of academic ethics and compliance aspects was the network information or communication with classmates, which accounts for 39.34%. The data also show that 95.90% of respondents thought it is necessary for medical graduate students to accept academic ethics and norms of education, 68.03% of the respondents realized that cultivating students' awareness of scientific integrity in the process of scientific research gradually has great guiding significance for mentors and counselors. Conclusions The survey suggests that the education of scientific integrity in our country is very inadequate, the knowledge on good scientific integrity was fragmented. At present, most of the medical universities have not yet set up scientific integrity course, and access to the knowledge of integrity is limited for students. The scientific integrity education has become an extremely urgent issue for cultivating the sense of integrity in scientific research for researchers as soon as possible. Key words: Research ethics; Research misconduct; Scientific misconduct