RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT OF RESEARCH AND THE GLOBAL CONTEXT

An Overview

Scientific research is one of the great adventures of our time. Researchers are members of a global community that is producing new knowledge at an unprecedented rate. This new knowledge is transforming society by contributing to the development of new technologies and by changing how we think about the natural world, ourselves, and our institutions.

The growth and accelerating pace of scientific discovery has made the twenty-first century an exciting time to be a researcher. Large international teams are working on problems that were impossible to solve in the past, such as the annotation of the human genome, the search for dark matter, or the analysis of "big data" derived from social media. New fields of research are opening up at the intersection of traditional disciplines, such as nanobiology and neuro-economics (Glimcher 2003; Nussinov and Alemán 2006). Researchers are generating knowledge that could fundamentally alter agriculture, energy production, environmental protection, communications, and many other aspects of human life. Our future on this planet will depend to a considerable extent on the products of research.

Like the rest of society, the research enterprise has been undergoing momentous changes. Information technology is revolutionizing how research is done and how researchers interact with each other. Most researchers work not just on individual tasks but as parts of research teams that include people with many different backgrounds and perspectives and may be international in scope. Governments around the world, recognizing the critical role of research in improving the well-being of their citizens, are increasing their support for science and engineering. As a result, millions more scientists and engineers are working today than was the case just two decades ago (NSB 2012).

The changes going on within research have created challenges. Team research can create conflict as well as opportunity. The rapid expansion of the research community may disrupt the transmission of traditions and ethical principles to new researchers. Increased competition for resources may intensify the pressures faced by researchers, including young investigators, to publish more papers and to publish in the most prestigious journals. Technology -enabled tools such as blogs and social media increase the speed of scientific communication but may also contribute to eroding collegiality or facilitate the spread of unreliable information. Many researchers travel to countries where they may encounter different research practices than they are used to, or they may become involved in interdisciplinary research that is unlike research they have done before. The research landscape has become more diverse, more interconnected, faster paced, and more complex than ever.

Throughout the history of research, young and early career researchers have learned about standards of conduct by working with more experienced researchers. This process of learning by doing will continue to be essential in the training of future generations of researchers. However, new researchers can benefit from having a readily accessible and compact source of guidance — guidance that more -experienced researchers need to review and follow as well. All researchers can benefit from a better understanding of changes in the research landscape and their possible impacts.

In 2008, the International Council for Science (ICSU) published a booklet providing guidance about the responsibilities and freedom of researchers to maximize the benefits of science for society. One year later, the educational guide On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research (NAS-NAE-IOM 2009) was published. In 2012, the InterAcademy Council (IAC) and IAP — The Global Network of Science Academies — published Responsible Conduct in the Global Research Enterprise: A Policy Report, which describes the values of research and how those values should guide the conduct of research. This 2012 report acknowledged that different disciplines and countries have varying research traditions and cultures. But it argued that the fundamental values of research transcend disciplinary or national boundaries and form the basis for principles of conduct that govern all research.

The educational guide you are reading now is an adaptation and expansion of the earlier policy report and was written by the same committee. It includes much of the same content and in some cases even the same language; text from the recommendations of the report is printed in boldface type when it appears in this publication. However, this publication has a different goal than previous documents. It has been written as a practical guide to conduct in a research environment that is being transformed by globalization, interdisciplinary research projects, team science, and information technologies. It addresses both long-standing issues in the responsible conduct of research and emerging issues. It is aimed not only at new researchers but at more-experienced researchers and research administrators, funders, and policymakers, all of whom are caught up in the broad trends that are reshaping the research enterprise.

This guide provides an overview of which research behaviors are responsible and to be embraced and which are irresponsible and to be avoided. It uses specific examples from a variety of areas to provide guidance relevant to researchers in all fields. The organization of the guide parallels the research process. The even -numbered chapters follow the process of research, from planning and preparing to undertake research (chapter 2) to carrying out research (chapter 4), to preventing and addressing irresponsible research practices (chapter 6), to reporting research results (chapter 8), to communicating with policymakers and the public (chapter 10). The odd-numbered chapters discuss broader issues associated with performing research: the researcher's responsibilities to try to prevent the misuse of research and related technology (chapter 3), the researcher's responsibilities to society in planning and carrying out research (chapter 5), aligning incentives with responsible research (chapter 7), and the benefits and challenges of international collaboration (chapter 9). The references and additional resources do not represent an exhaustive bibliographic source, but they provide the reader with further material about the topics covered in...