Responsible Conduct of Research: Behaviorism to the Rescue (at last)

The Health and Human Services (within which is the NIH, if you didn’t know) Office of Research Integrity blog has an entry of considerable interest to YHN. In musing on the integration of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) education with Bioethics Education, the author arrives at the crux:

…researchers may be faced with everyday ethical decisions that can create personal inner conflict. For instance, as competition for resources increases, a researcher might feel he or she has to make a decision that weighs the good that comes from objectivity in research against breaking a rule, for instance exaggerating preliminary data in a grant application, for the good of possibly sustaining his or her research program and staff (but also at the risk of losing everything).