Scientists Behaving Badly

Some scientists may avoid studies they think are likely to cause ethical controversy, but one third of scientists say that they've engaged in at least one behavior that they believed would probably get them into trouble during the past three years. Coverage of this forthcoming Nature piece has already begun, and among the findings are these

Of the 10 practices that Martinson’s study described as the most serious, less than 2 percent of respondents admitted to falsifying data, plagiarism or ignoring major aspects of rules for conducting studies with human subjects. But nearly 8 percent said they’d circumvented what they judged to be minor aspects of such requirements. The survey questions didn’t name those specific points.

Nearly 13 percent of those who responded said they’d overlooked “others’ use of flawed data or questionable interpretation of data,” and nearly 16 percent said they had changed the design, methods or results of a study “in response to pressure from a funding source.”

This data is going to be very very powerful.
[thanks Sean]