These survey results about researcher attitudes and behaviour are troubling for Norway. But our professional, academic and consultancy work globally leads us to conclude the reported problems and challenges are very normal and common to most countries. If you’re thinking “Not my country and not my institution” then the problems are still there, they just aren’t being reported.
This article presents results from the national survey conducted in 2018 for the project Research Integrity in Norway (RINO). A total of 31,206 questionnaires were sent out to Norwegian researchers by e-mail, and 7291 responses were obtained. In this paper, we analyse the survey data to determine attitudes towards and the prevalence of fabrication, falsification and plagiarism (FFP) and contrast this with attitudes towards and the prevalence of the more questionable research practices (QRPs) surveyed. Our results show a relatively low percentage of self-reported FFPs (0.2–0.3%), while the number of researchers who report having committed one of the QRPs during the last three years reached a troublesome 40%. The article also presents a ranking of the perceived severity of FFP and QRPs among Norwegian researchers. Overall, there is a widespread normative consensus, where FFP is considered more troublesome than QRPs.
Keywords
Research integrity, Research misconduct, Questionable research practices (QRPs). Falsification, fabrication plagiarism (FFP)
Kaiser, M., Drivdal, L., Hjellbrekke, J. et al. Questionable Research Practices and Misconduct Among Norwegian Researchers. Science and Engineering Ethics 28, 2 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-021-00351-4
Publisher (Open Access): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11948-021-00351-4
