Scientific Record Keeping & Responsible Research Conduct

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Although almost everyone agrees that good record keeping is important in science, little empirical research has been conducted on researchers' record keeping practices, or the degree to which poor record keeping practices create problems for the integrity and quality of research. This study will provide a better understanding of the role of record keeping in scientific research. This award supports the first two phases of the research. Phase 1 will document the problems that institutional officials who are charged with investigating and adjudicating allegations of research misconduct encounter when they examine research records. This phase will gather information via semi-structured telephone interviews, which will allow respondents to describe the most common and most serious problems encountered. Phase 1 will also collect their institutional policies concerning research records. Phase 2 will convene four focus groups of research faculty to review potential problem areas in record keeping identified in Phase 1, to provide more information for refining the normative standards, to identify barriers to good record keeping practices, and to assist in development of one or more questionnaires for Phase 3. The focus groups will help insure that the questionnaire or questionnaires address the most important research record keeping issues, and that the questions are worded clearly and effectively. The immediate outcome from this initial effort will be a report to NSF documenting the results from the interviews and focus groups, a semi-final version of the questionnaire(s) and the results of the pre-test with focus group members, and an assessment of the value of proceeding with a full survey of record keeping practices by research faculty and students in a number of fields.