The responsible conduct of research (RCR) (a.k.a. as research integrity) captures a range of ethical norms and practices which include research misconduct (generally defined as fabrication, falsification and plagiarism), authorship and publication ethics, the ethics of peer review, proper data management, mentoring, conflicts of interest, animal ethics, and the ethics of research involving humans. In some cases, topics such as animal ethics and the ethics of research involving humans are subfields of their own due to the extensive scholarship devoted to them. RCR has received considerable attention in many nations. For example, students and faculty may be required to receive education and training in RCR, several scholars study and perform research on research integrity, and many countries have developed policies to govern research integrity (Resnik and Master, 2013; Master, 2012). Yet most educational initiatives and research on research integrity center on the natural and applied sciences including, biomedical science, clinical research, engineering, and psychology. Fewer research integrity policies, education, and research is devoted to philosophy or law, or for multi or interdisciplinary fields such as bioethics.

I have previously argued that bioethicists need to pay closer attention to issues of research integrity. Why is this important? I define bioethics as an interdisciplinary field where scholars from philosophy, law, science, medicine, social science, nursing and anthropology come together to work on a common set of normative questions using a range of methods and theoretical lenses. By focusing efforts towards understanding research integrity practice, we will better understand the epistemic dimensions of our field, enhance integrity in bioethics scholarship, and be able to evaluate bioethicists more fairly. In turn, these efforts are likely to promote greater trust in bioethics by other academic scholars, among bioethicists, and the general public. Yet the field of bioethics has not paid close enough attention as it relates to research integrity issues of its own scholarship. Let’s focus on authorship as an example since this is one area that has most recently received some attention.

The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our website.