Males are overrepresented among life science researchers committing scientific misconduct.
Males are overrepresented among life science researchers committing scientific misconduct.
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DOI：
10.1128/mbio.00640-12
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发表时间：
2013-01-22
期刊：
影响因子：
6.4
通讯作者：
Casadevall A
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fang FC;Bennett JW;Casadevall A
对美国研究诚信办公室年度报告的审查发现，228 名个人存在不当行为，其中 94% 涉及欺诈。按职业阶段和性别对数据进行的分析显示，从实习生到高级科学家的整个职业生涯中都存在不当行为，而且被发现犯有不当行为的人中有三分之二是男性。这超过了生命科学学员和教师中男性的总体比例。这些观察结果强调需要付出更多努力来理解科学不端行为并确保负责任的研究行为。由于人类许多最大的问题都需要科学的解决方案，因此科学事业的最佳运作至关重要。不当行为会破坏人们对科学发现有效性的信任，从而威胁到科学事业。我们检查了被发现在生命科学领域存在研究不端行为的个人的具体人口特征。我们发现，不当行为发生在职业发展的各个阶段，这表明对科学行为道德方面的关注不应仅限于培训中的人员。观察发现，犯下不当行为的人中男性比例过高，这意味着在促进研究诚信的任何努力中都需要更好地理解性别差异。
A review of the United States Office of Research Integrity annual reports identified 228 individuals who have committed misconduct, of which 94% involved fraud. Analysis of the data by career stage and gender revealed that misconduct occurred across the entire career spectrum from trainee to senior scientist and that two-thirds of the individuals found to have committed misconduct were male. This exceeds the overall proportion of males among life science trainees and faculty. These observations underscore the need for additional efforts to understand scientific misconduct and to ensure the responsible conduct of research. As many of humanity’s greatest problems require scientific solutions, it is critical for the scientific enterprise to function optimally. Misconduct threatens the scientific enterprise by undermining trust in the validity of scientific findings. We have examined specific demographic characteristics of individuals found to have committed research misconduct in the life sciences. Our finding that misconduct occurs across all stages of career development suggests that attention to ethical aspects of the conduct of science should not be limited to those in training. The observation that males are overrepresented among those who commit misconduct implies a gender difference that needs to be better understood in any effort to promote research integrity.