Global Insights: Experiences of Research Integrity from the United States and Asia

Global Insights – Experiences of Research Integrity from the USA and Asia

Ovid J. L. Tzeng

Chairman of the Advisory Board, University System of Taiwan

Academician and Distinguished Research Fellow, Academia Sinica

Abstract

Scientific Integrity should be integrated into a scientist’s routine practice at three different levels, namely, personal, institutional, and socio-cultural. At the personal level, a scientist is expected to conduct his or her work with honesty and integrity such that trust can be established among scientists as a whole. At the institutional level, evaluation and assessment systems should be improved to establish a better environment for academic innovation, and faculties and students should be educated on research integrity to strengthen academic ethics and policy. Finally, at the socio-cultural level, it is important that the society should recognize that scientists, as well as citizens, should have concern for the greater common good of the society; and it is their responsibility to use good and ethical scientific endeavor to improve human welfare and sustainable developments, including trying to ensure the benefits and minimize the potential dangers. Public engagement in science policy-making has to be encouraged and science education through responsible media has to be enforced. Against the defining features of research integrity across the three levels, the Office of Research Integrity in USA has made a tremendous effort in assessing the problems of research misconduct in various forms and environments within the country and in the world. Behavioral codes and institutional regulations has been studied and educational programs were implemented to prevent misconducts and foster research integrity. In contrast, the rising power of research universities and institutions among some Asian countries did not pay enough attention to the general issue of research integrity, and they also did not made effort to combat the rising trend of misconducts committed by their junior and sometimes senior scientists. What are reasons behind the lack of concern? It seems that research integrity was ignored and became a problem in many of these countries as a side effect of the fast reform and rapid transformation of social structure as well as research reward systems. What have been done to circumvent the problems? The situation shall be examined from a global perspective, with example cases to highlight the effort of fostering integrity among scientists in the region.