Professor Donald McCabe (Sociology, Rutgers) has researched undergraduate
cheating for a decade and is generally regarded as the country's leading expert.
He reports these two comments as typical:
What's important is getting the job done. How you get it done is less
important.
All I'm doing is emulating the behavior I'll need when I get out in the real
world.
Office of Research Integrity (ORI)
Is misconduct increasing at the graduate level? McCabe is certain that
the answer is yes, although he admits that he does not have the data
needed from years ago to prove it conclusively. The Office of Research
Integrity at NIH reports more cases each year.
The ORI web site is a
valuable resource for biomedical and behavioral research ethical issues.
You can subscribe to their RSS feed to get the latest news including
research misconduct investigations and links to journal articles.
scientists confess
How widespread is it? This comprehensive survey by Brian Martinson in
Nature last year polled more than 3,000 scientists in various stages of
their careers. Twelve percent said in the past 3 years they had overlooked
another scientist's use of flawed data.
questionable research practices
Fifteen percent changed the design, methodology or results of a study
in response to pressure from a funding source.
less than 10%
We can argue the numbers and the methodologies used to reach them. But
to do so may be beside the point if Paul Cousins (Office of Student
Conduct, NC State) is right. He believes we are only seeing the tip of an
iceberg.
Human Nature
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