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

科学社会的道德准则是该学科的标准、价值观和承诺的重要标志。本项目旨在了解一个科学社会的伦理准则是否以及以何种方式影响其学科文化和与伦理和负责任的研究相关的个人行为。2020年4月16日，美国政治学协会宣布对协会的道德准则进行重大修改，该文件的正式名称为《政治学职业道德指南》。这一变化为进行“自然实验”研究专业协会的道德规范与研究诚信之间的关系提供了绝佳的机会。本项目对APSA成员的伦理和研究诚信进行了7项基线测量，包括他们的认知、出版实践和研究生的研究伦理教育，以便后续测量可以检测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。研究结果将广泛传播，使学者和学术领袖能够更好地促进负责任和合乎道德的研究行为。本项目通过收集科学学会伦理规范变更前的基线数据，回答了三个研究问题：(1)专业伦理规范如何影响科研诚信的学科氛围？(2)职业道德规范如何影响与研究诚信相关的出版和传播实践？(3)专业道德规范如何影响负责任和合乎道德的研究行为的教学？学者们已经确定，荣誉规范是本科生群体学术诚信的有效影响因素，但对于道德规范是否以及以何种方式影响学术和专业群体的研究诚信，人们知之甚少。收集与以下方面相关的基线数据：(1)成员对科研诚信学科氛围的看法；(2)作者对伦理规范和期望的意识；(3)期刊投稿要求；(4)作者对伦理问题的披露；(5)关注出版和演讲论坛中的道德问题；(6) RECR教育规划；(7) RECR资源允许识别和测量这种变化的影响。理解不断变化的道德规范的影响，可以更广泛地了解道德规范的影响力，以及可取和不可取的研究实践的因果和影响因素。这些知识将有助于学术和专业领导者培养诚信文化，并在未来修订其道德准则时产生更大的影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.