A survey of tertiary hospital new researchers’ awareness and attitude on scientific integrity / 中华医学科研管理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:Understand the perceptions of research integrity and their attitudes to related integrity violations among newly recruited researchers in a tertiary hospital.Methods:The electronic questionnaire was distributed to a WeChat group of 123 newly recruited researchers in a tertiary hospital in 2018. The questionnaire included the demographic characteristics, the awareness of research integrity and attitude towards behaviors that violate research integrity.Results:The total number of respondents was 87 and 45.98% respondents received research integrity training. Less than 50% of respondents were familiar with the regulatory requirement of research integrity, the definition of research integrity, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism and other common problems violating research integrity. Regarding attitude towards scientific misconduct, most investigators (82.76%~90.8%) thought it incorrect. 64.37% of investigators would like to report to regulatory authorities if they found scientific misconduct. If the researchers strongly violated research integrity, 80.46%~81.61% of respondents voted for suspending his or her promotion, suspending his or her application for being a mentor and 58.62% of respondents voted for being banned for conducting any research forever. Receiving education of research integrity is an independent influence factor of awareness of fabrication, falsification and plagiarism (FFP).Conclusions:The proportion of newly recruited researchers receiving research integrity training in tertiary hospital is not big and most researchers don't know much about research integrity. Their attitudes to academic misconduct need to be further strengthened. Various measures are urgently needed to carry out to improve the integrity awareness and attitude of newly recruited researchers in tertiary hospitals.