Tekijät

• Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK

Asiasanat

ethics, ethics of science, research, research work, research workers, science, scientific research

Sisällön kuvaus

The Research Integrity Barometer 2023 examines the implementation of the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) in the Finnish scientific and research community during 2019-2022. The survey explores sources of research ethics information, familiarity with guidelines, and misconduct and related suspicions.

Respondents were asked how well they are familiar with key RCR guidelines (e.g. the RCR guidelines, authorship practices, researcher's curriculum vitae guidelines, and The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity) as well as the research ethics support person system within their organisations. In addition, respondents were asked about the various sources (e.g. organisation, funders, publications, the scientific community, media) from which they have obtained information on research ethics. The section on RCR competence examined the availability of research ethics training, participation in such training, and respondents' self-assessed level of competence. Respondents were also asked to evaluate the adequacy of their competence and their need for further training.

Respondents were asked how often they had suspected research misconduct (e.g. plagiarism, fabrication, falsification of observations or results) and disregard for the responsible conduct of research (e.g. neglect of research permits, deficiencies in data handling, authorship disputes, self-plagiarism, exaggeration of merits). This was followed by questions on respondents' knowledge of reporting processes, experiences of making allegations, and barriers to reporting, such as loyalty, fear of consequences, or distrust in the fairness of procedures. Finally, the survey examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on compliance with the responsible conduct of research.

Background variables include respondents' research experience (in years), highest degree obtained, field of education (by disciplinary classification), country where the highest degree was completed, employing organisation, main work tasks, and the field of science of the respondent's current position or research.