Ethical and Legal Issues

Ethical and Legal Issues

Misconduct and other ethical problems in university-based research have been widely discussed, but the result is still wide disagreement. Disparate opinions appear to place the extent and the significance of such impropriety somewhere between minuscule and monstrous. Yet quantitative information on which to base such opinions has been sparse. Furthermore, much of the debate about misconduct has concerned its impact on the public's impression of science. When questions are asked about the effects of misconduct, they often include: Have the media overemphasized such problems? Have reports—merited or not—influenced public funding of scientific research? Does the ...