RAPID: Using a professional code of ethics to promote ethical and responsible research

RAPID：使用专业道德准则来促进道德和负责任的研究

• 批准号: 2032752
• 负责人: Trisha Phillips
• 金额: $ 7.15万
• 依托单位: West Virginia University Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-01 至 2024-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2032752&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Using; professional; code; ethics

A scientific society’s code of ethics is an important symbol of the discipline’s standards, values, and commitments. This project aims to understand whether and in what way a scientific society’s code of ethics influences its disciplinary culture and individual behaviors related to ethical and responsible research. On April 16, 2020, the American Political Science Association announced significant changes to the Association’s code of ethics, a document formally titled A Guide to Professional Ethics in Political Science. This change provides an excellent opportunity to conduct a “natural experiment” to study the relationship between a professional association’s code of ethics and research integrity. This project takes seven baseline measurements relating to ethics and research integrity among APSA members, including their perceptions, publication practices, and graduate student education in research ethics, so that follow up measurements can detect whether these indicators of research integrity changed after the association changed its code of ethics. Findings will be broadly disseminated to better enable scholars and academic leaders to promote the responsible and ethical conduct of research. By collecting baseline data before changes are made to the ethics code of a scientific society, this project responds to three research questions: (1) How does a professional code of ethics influence the disciplinary climate of research integrity? (2) How does a professional code of ethics influence publication and dissemination practices related to research integrity? (3) How does a professional code of ethics influence instruction in the responsible and ethical conduct of research? Scholars have established that honor codes are effective influencing factors for academic integrity in undergraduate student populations, but little is known about whether and in what way codes of ethics can influence research integrity in academic and professional populations. Collecting baseline data related to: (1) member perceptions of disciplinary climate of research integrity; (2) author’s awareness of ethical norms and expectations; (3) submission requirements for journals; (4) author’s disclosure of ethical issues; (5) attention to ethical issues in publication and presentation forums; (6) RECR educational programming; and (7) RECR resources allows the effects of this change to be identified and measured. Understanding the effects of changing codes of ethics yields broader insights into the influencing power of ethical codes, and the causal and influencing factors for desirable and undesirable research practices. This knowledge will help enable academic and professional leaders cultivate cultures of integrity and achieve greater impact when revising their code of ethics in the future.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

科学社会的道德规范是该学科的标准、价值和承诺的重要标志。该项目旨在了解科学社会的道德准则是否以及以何种方式影响其与道德和负责任的研究相关的学科文化和个人行为。2020年4月16日，美国政治科学协会宣布对该协会的道德准则进行重大修改，正式标题为《政治学职业道德指南》。这一变化为研究专业协会的道德规范与研究诚信之间的关系提供了一个绝佳的机会，可以进行一项“自然实验”。该项目在APSA成员中进行了七项与伦理和研究诚信有关的基线测量，包括他们对研究伦理的看法、发表做法和研究生研究伦理教育，以便后续测量可以检测到在协会改变其伦理准则后，这些研究诚信指标是否发生了变化。研究结果将被广泛传播，以使学者和学术领袖能够更好地促进负责任和道德的研究行为。通过在改变科学社会的伦理准则之前收集基线数据，该项目回答了三个研究问题：(1)专业伦理准则如何影响研究诚信的纪律氛围？(2)专业伦理准则如何影响与研究诚信相关的出版和传播实践？(3)专业伦理准则如何影响负责任和合乎道德的研究行为的指导？学者们已经证实，荣誉准则是影响本科生群体学术诚信的有效因素，但关于道德准则是否以及以何种方式影响学术和专业人群的研究诚信，人们知之甚少。收集与以下方面有关的基线数据：(1)成员对研究诚信的学科氛围的看法；(2)作者对伦理规范和期望的认识；(3)对期刊的提交要求；(4)作者对伦理问题的披露；(5)出版和演示论坛中对伦理问题的关注；(6)RECR教育规划；以及(7)RECR资源使这种变化的影响得以确定和衡量。理解改变道德规范的效果，可以更广泛地洞察道德规范的影响力，以及可取和不可取的研究实践的原因和影响因素。这一知识将有助于学术和专业领袖培养诚信文化，并在未来修订他们的道德准则时产生更大的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。