Graduate Socialization in the Responsible Conduct of Research: A National Survey on the Research Ethics Training Experiences of Psychology Doctoral Students

Abstract

Little is known about the mechanisms by which psychology graduate programs transmit responsible conduct of research (RCR) values. A national sample of 968 current students and recent graduates of mission-diverse doctoral psychology programs, completed a web-based survey on their research ethics challenges, perceptions of RCR mentoring and department climate, their ability to conduct research responsibility, and whether they believed psychology as a discipline promotes scientific integrity. Research experience, mentor RCR instruction and modeling, and department RCR policies predicted student RCR preparedness. Mentor RCR instruction, department RCR policies, and faculty modeling of RCR behaviors predicted confidence in the RCR integrity of the discipline. Implications for training are discussed. KeywordsEthics; Research; Responsible Conduct of Research; Mentoring; Department; Climate; Graduate Education; Psychology Graduate programs are the primary training ground for socializing each new generation of psychologists in the values and ethical practices guiding the responsible conduct of research (RCR). Through departmental policies, mentoring and student involvement in research, graduate education in psychology creates the climate in which research integrity flourishes or flounders (Fisher, Wertz, & Goodman, in press). Psychology has over five decades of history promoting the responsible conduct of research through the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct (APA, 2002, Fisher, 2009Canter, Bennett, Jones & Nagy, 1994;Hobbs, 1948;Sales & Folkman, 2000;Smith, 1976) and ethics scholarship influencing moral debate within the field and throughout the social sciences (e.g., Baumrind, 1964;McGaha & Korn, 1995;Melton, Koocher & Saks, 1983;Milgram, 1963). Although ethics complaints against psychological scientists are infrequent (APA, 2004(APA, -2008, like other disciplines, psychology has not escaped highly publicized cases of scientific misconduct (Needleman, 1993;Salter, 1998;Sprague, 1993). Violations of research ethics regulations and professional standards, whether born of lack of awareness or understanding of RCR requirements or of malicious intent, undermine the overall integrity of the research enterprise (Eisen & Berry, 2002;Steneck, 2001). In recent years, increased public awareness of the effect of basic science and clinical trials on public health policy and health services along with some highly publicized cases involving charges of scientific misconduct (Eisen & Berry, 2002; CRI, 1995; NAS, 2002) RCR training of investigators conducting federally funded research (PHS, 2000(PHS, , 2001 and prompted the Office of Research Integrity to provide guidelines on specific RCR core instructional areas. The current APA Ethics Code (APA, 2002) includes ethical standards corresponding to each of these RCR core areas, including data management, human participant and animal subject protections, publication practices and responsible authorship, peer review, and conflicts of...

Graduate students’ experiences with research ethics in conducting health research

“…The positive relationship between graduate students and their academic supervisors is essential to support a student's self-confidence with research ethics. Supervisors influence students' knowledge and perceptions of responsible conduct of research by socializing them into a research community that values research integrity (Fisher et al, 2009a). Transmission of knowledge is best when the mentor provides direct instructions and practical guidance, and integrates the research ethics process into supervision by sharing their own experiences (Fisher et al, 2009b;Richards, 2010).…”

Teaching research integrity in higher education: policy and strategy

“…Fielden and Joyce (2008), for example, reviewed 125 academic papers to reveal a range of conceptions about the nature of academic integrity. On how academic integrity is taught and learned, Alfredo and Hart (2011) suggest that most students learn ethical guidelines and codes of conduct from their advisors, but many researchers accept that students learn rules and standards by observing and participating in academic communities (Kitchener, 1992) and that how students come to view research ethics and academic integrity may be strongly influenced by their observations of how teachers and researchers around them behave (Gray & Jordan, 2012;Fisher, Fried & Feldman, 2009). On whose responsibility it is to teach academic integrity, we suspect that higher education has always taken academic integrity seriously and does attempt to promote it through specific teaching, but struggles to incorporate it within more conventional learning and teaching processes involving, as examples, intended learning outcomes, planned learning activities and assessment.…”

Confidentiality and Disclosure in Non-Intervention Adolescent Risk Research

“…There are no cookie-cutter solutions to confidentiality and disclosure policies, and each investigator needs to weigh the costs and benefits of alternative policies to participants, research team members, and the integrity of the research design. As the primary training ground for student socialization in the responsible conduct of research (Fisher, Fried, & Feldman, 2009;Fisher, Fried, Goodman, & Germano, 2009), applied developmental science programs can enhance the future responsible conduct of adolescent research through engaging students at the outset of training in the identification of ethical issues as they arise across diverse research context and providing opportunities to Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 01:08 20 November 2014 FISHER seek and incorporate the perspectives of participant populations in research ethics planning. Exploring the ethical dimensions of adolescent risk research provides an opportunity to envision research ethics as a process that draws upon investigators' knowledge as scientists of the human condition, their responsiveness to others as members of society and to discover new means of resolving obligations as scientists and citizens.…”