An analysis of functional relationships between systemic conditions and unethical behavior in German academia

Abstract

This paper is an updated English version of a report filed by a commission that the German Psychological Society (DGPs) appointed in 2022. The commission’s task was to identify factors in the science system that enable or even promote unethical behaviors, and to propose corrective measures. Based on expert-interviews, a review of the research literature, and discussions within the commission, the following problematic issues were identified: (P1) negligent or fraudulent scientific practices, (P2) power abuse, (P3) insufficient mentoring of Early Career Researchers, (P4) insufficient quality of teaching, (P5) counterproductive incentives, (P6) overburdening of professors with tasks, (P7) fixed-term contracts for everyone except professors, (P8) unnecessarily steep power differentials, (P9) dysfunctional peer-review system, (P10) lack of quality in personnel selection procedures, (P11) low awareness and commitment regarding ethical norms, and (P12) weak mechanisms for detecting and sanctioning unethical behavior. The commission offers concrete recommendations for changes to the academic system that should make the occurrence of unethical behavior less likely. Even though some of these recommendations might be rather specific for the field of psychology and for the German academic system, most of them may be valid for science in general.