Awareness of Publication Guidelines and the Responsible Conduct of Research

Abstract

We have conducted a longitudinal survey of NIH-funded F32 postdoctoral fellows to determine if mandated instruction in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) has measurable effects on awareness of, attentiveness to, and behavioral judgments about research ethics and authorship and publication. Of 418 F32 fellows participating in the study, 50% were aware of and had referred to guidelines on authorship and publication practices while 50% were either unaware of or had not referred to guidelines. Groups were similar with regard to total number of peer-reviewed publications and total number of first author publications, years of research experience, years since completing their doctoral degree, and receipt of RCR training. The equal distribution of guideline awareness and use, and group similarities with regard to career development and achievement provided us with an opportunity to consider whether awareness of and use of guidelines is associated with broader judgments about author roles and responsibilities. The findings suggest that awareness and utilization of guidelines are, at best, only modestly associated with more ethically appropriate judgments and attitudes about author roles and responsibilities among novice F32’s.

K.A.B., C.L.F., and F.L.M. designed the survey instrument. K.A.B. oversaw data collection, and K.A.B. and C.L.F. performed data compilation and statistical analysis. All three authors participated equally in data interpretation. K.A.B. wrote the first draft of the Methods and Results section and F.L.M. wrote the Introduction section and performed the literature search. All authors co-wrote and co-edited the Discussion section. None of the authors have any financial, personal, or institutional conflicts of interest related to the performance of this research or the reporting of its results. This research was carried out under a human subject research protocol, reviewed and approved by the Virginia Commonwealth University Institutional Review Board (VCU IRB # 2826; current approval date, 5/12/04)

This research was supported by the Research on Research Integrity Program, an ORI/NIH collaboration: USPHS Grant NS042494 to Virginia Commonwealth University (F.L.M., Principal Investigator). We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of William E. McGarvey and Walter Schaffer, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health.

Keywords:

• responsible conduct of research instruction
• authorship and publication
• authorship guidelines
• NIH F32 postdoctoral fellows

Notes

K.A.B., C.L.F., and F.L.M. designed the survey instrument. K.A.B. oversaw data collection, and K.A.B. and C.L.F. performed data compilation and statistical analysis. All three authors participated equally in data interpretation. K.A.B. wrote the first draft of the Methods and Results section and F.L.M. wrote the Introduction section and performed the literature search. All authors co-wrote and co-edited the Discussion section. None of the authors have any financial, personal, or institutional conflicts of interest related to the performance of this research or the reporting of its results. This research was carried out under a human subject research protocol, reviewed and approved by the Virginia Commonwealth University Institutional Review Board (VCU IRB # 2826; current approval date, 5/12/04)

This research was supported by the Research on Research Integrity Program, an ORI/NIH collaboration: USPHS Grant NS042494 to Virginia Commonwealth University (F.L.M., Principal Investigator). We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of William E. McGarvey and Walter Schaffer, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health.