Survey on Responsible Conduct of Research among Researchers in Malaysia

Oslan, Ain Sofea (2021) Survey on Responsible Conduct of Research among Researchers in Malaysia. [Project Paper] (Submitted)

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Abstract

Responsible conduct of research (RCR) is a guideline to ensure high quality of research and prevent breaches of research ethics. According to Steen et. al (2013), the number of retracted articles have spiked in the last ten years. This might be caused by increased research misconduct such as falsification or fabrication of data. It might also be caused by other factors such as poor research design or non-replicable results. Hence, RCR serves as a foundation to improve the trustworthiness of research and prevent misconducts and detrimental research practices. There are currently no national-level studies that evaluate the awareness and attitudes of researchers in Malaysia towards RCR. Therefore, the aim of this study is to fill this knowledge gap through a national survey to study RCR landscape among researchers in Malaysia. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to determine the experience of researchers in RCR education, analyse the attitude towards RCR and evaluate the likeliness to whistle-blow. Methodology: An online survey has been designed, validated and hosted using Survey Monkey. This survey was approved by University of Malaya’s Research Ethic Committee prior to survey distribution via snowball sampling method. We analyzed demographic data, researchers’ attitude towards RCR and their likeliness to whistle-blow. The categorical data was analysed using descriptive statistics and the association studies were analysed with Kruskal Wallis, Mannwhitney U Test and Spearman Correlation Test. Results: There are 400 respondents who took the survey and 319 respondents have received training in at least one RCR topic. The most common RCR topics these respondents have received training in are authorship and publication, research misconducts and human ethics. There is a slight correlation between respondents’ prior experience in RCR training with their attitudes towards RCR. We did not find any correlation between the duration of respondents’ research experience and academic qualification with their attitudes towards RCR. Majority of the respondents choose ‘somewhat unlikely’ and ‘somewhat likely’ to whistle-blow if they encounter suspicious research misconduct. One third of the respondents are likely to whistle-blow and a minority of 15% are unlikely to whistle-blow. Discussion and Conclusion: This study serves as an opportunity to assess the attitude towards RCR among the researchers in Malaysia. A minority of respondents admitted that they rather ignore some research ethics if it means they can hasten the research process. This event may lead to research misconducts and poor quality research. Although more than half of respondents have RCR training experience, the scope of their training is limited to a few topics. Therefore, it is important to broaden their scope of RCR training to include more topics such as conflict of interests and mentor-mentee ethics. The reasons provided by the respondents who are unwilling or hesitant to whistle-blow when encountering suspicious research misconduct shows that there is a need to provide clear guidelines on reporting misconduct and to ensure the protection of whistle-blowers.

Item Type:	Project Paper
Faculty:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Depositing User:	Ms. Nor Safa'aton Saidin
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2023 07:49
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2023 07:49
URI:	http://psaspb.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/1042

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