A survey of newly appointed consultants' attitudes towards research fraud

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of, and attitudes towards, observed and personal research misconduct among newly appointed medical consultants. DESIGN: Questionnaire study. SETTING: Mersey region, United Kingdom. PARTICIPANTS: Medical consultants appointed between Jan 1995 and Jan 2000 in seven different hospital trusts (from lists provided by each hospital's personnel department). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Reported observed misconduct, reported past personal misconduct and reported possible future misconduct. RESULTS: One hundred and ninety-four replies were received (a response rate of 63.6%); 55.7% of respondents had observed some form of research misconduct; 5.7% of respondents admitted to past personal misconduct; 18% of respondents were either willing to commit or unsure about possible future research misconduct. Only 17% of the respondents reported having received any training in research ethics. Anaesthetists reported a lower incidence of observed research misconduct (33.3%) than the rest of the respondents (61.5%) (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: There is a higher prevalence of observed and possible future misconduct among newly appointed consultants in the UK than in the comparable study of biomedical trainees in California. Although there is a need for more extensive studies, this survey suggests that there is a real and potential problem of research misconduct in the UK.

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