Authors : Simon Fuglsang, Serge P.J.M. Horbach, Mads P. Sørensen, Niels Mejlgaard
Background
In response to widespread concerns about research integrity, recent years have seen numerous efforts to safeguard against research misconduct and questionable research practices. Research-performing organizations are among the key actors involved in implementing such efforts. However, little is known about the effectiveness of organizational policy initiatives.
Methods and materials
In this study, we investigate the ability of organizations to change researchers’ behavior through the perspective of the researcher. We analyze data from the International Research Integrity Survey (IRIS), a survey of researchers in Europe, Canada, Australia, and the USA. We specifically investigate whether researchers’ perceptions of their organizations’ research integrity policies relate to the degree to which they engage in questionable research practices.
Results
We find that awareness of policies, evaluations of the effectiveness of policies, as well as confidence in their organizations’ research integrity policies all relate to lower levels of engagement in questionable research practices. However, we also find that this relationship is highly sensitive to both researchers’ research integrity self-confidence and their general attitudes toward research integrity.
Conclusions
As such, while findings indicate that organizations’ policy efforts can influence researcher behavior, this influence is contingent on researcher acceptance and empowerment.
