Abstract

Research-oriented universities are known for prolific research activity that is often supported by students in faculty-guided research. To maintain ethical standards, universities require on-going training of both faculty and students to ensure Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR). However, previous research has indicated RCR-based training is insufficient to address the ethical dilemmas that are prevalent within academic settings: navigating issues of authorship, modeling relationships between faculty and students, minimization of risk, and adequate informed consent. U.S. universities must explore ways to identify and improve RCR concerns for current (faculty) and future researchers (students). This article reports the findings of a self-study (N = 50) of research stakeholders (students and faculty) at a top tier research institution. First, we report on their perceived importance of applying RCR principles. Second, we explore relationships between stakeholder backgrounds (e.g., prior training, field, and position) and how they ranked the degree of ethical concerns in fictitious vignettes that presented different unethical issues university students could encounter when conducting research. Vignette rankings suggested concerns of inappropriate relationships, predatory authorship and IRB violations which were judged as most unethical, which was dissimilar to what sampled researchers reported in practice as the most important RCR elements to understand and adhere to for successful research. Regression models indicated there was no significant relationship between individuals’ vignette ethics scores and backgrounds, affirming previous literature suggesting that training can be ineffectual in shifting researcher judgments of ethical dilemmas. Recommendations for training are discussed.

中文翻译：

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反思负责任的研究行为：研究型大学社区的自学

摘要

研究型大学以多产的研究活动而闻名，这些活动通常得到学生在教师指导研究中的支持。为了保持道德标准，大学需要对教师和学生进行持续培训，以确保负责任的研究行为 (RCR)。然而，先前的研究表明，基于 RCR 的培训不足以解决学术环境中普遍存在的道德困境：解决作者身份问题、建模教师和学生之间的关系、最小化风险和充分的知情同意。美国大学必须探索方法来识别和改善当前（教师）和未来研究人员（学生）的 RCR 问题。本文报告了一项自学的结果（N = 50) 顶级研究机构的研究利益相关者（学生和教师）。首先，我们报告了他们认为应用 RCR 原则的重要性。其次，我们探讨了利益相关者背景（例如，先前的培训、领域和职位）之间的关系，以及他们如何在虚构的小插曲中对道德问题的程度进行排序，这些小插曲提出了大学生在进行研究时可能遇到的不同的不道德问题。Vignette 排名表明了对不当关系、掠夺性作者身份和 IRB 违规行为的担忧，这些被认为是最不道德的，这与抽样研究人员在实践中报告的作为成功研究需要理解和坚持的最重要的 RCR 要素的情况不同。回归模型表明，个人的伦理道德分数与背景之间没有显着关系，这证实了先前的文献表明，培训在改变研究人员对伦理困境的判断方面可能无效。讨论了培训建议。