ERIC Number: EJ1305492
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jul
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1747-0161
EISSN: N/A
Publish or Be Ethical? Publishing Pressure and Scientific Misconduct in Research
Paruzel-Czachura, Mariola; Baran, Lidia; Spendel, Zbigniew
Research Ethics, v17 n3 p375-397 Jul 2021
The paper reports two studies exploring the relationship between scholars' self-reported publication pressure and their self-reported scientific misconduct in research. In Study 1 the participants (N = 423) were scholars representing various disciplines from one big university in Poland. In Study 2 the participants (N = 31) were exclusively members of the management, such as dean, director, etc. from the same university. In Study 1 the most common reported form of scientific misconduct was honorary authorship. The majority of researchers (71%) reported that they had not violated ethical standards in the past; 3% admitted to scientific misconduct; 51% reported being were aware of colleagues' scientific misconduct. A small positive correlation between perceived publication pressure and intention to engage in scientific misconduct in the future was found. In Study 2 more than half of the management (52%) reported being aware of researchers' dishonest practices, the most frequent one of these being honorary authorship. As many as 71% of the participants report observing publication pressure in their subordinates. The primary conclusions are: (1) most scholars are convinced of their morality and predict that they will behave morally in the future; (2) scientific misconduct, particularly minor offenses such as honorary authorship, is frequently observed both by researchers (particularly in their colleagues) and by their managers; (3) researchers experiencing publication pressure report a willingness to engage in scientific misconduct in the future.
Descriptors: Publish or Perish Issue, College Faculty, College Administration, Researchers, Scholarship, Authors, Scientific Research, Ethics, Moral Issues, Standards, Intention, Incidence, Correlation, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Poland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A