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Yesterday I enjoyed talking at a Big National Funder's workshop on research integrity.
Goal was for Funder to listen junior academics talk frankly about ways to improve research.
It was an interesting, challenging, and somewhat depressing session and two things stood out
Goal was for Funder to listen junior academics talk frankly about ways to improve research.
It was an interesting, challenging, and somewhat depressing session and two things stood out
1) Postgrads & postdocs are thoughtful and passionate about improving research. It’s risky to speak out but they do it eloquently, and it is inspiring
2) Research Integrity committees want to improve the quality of research, but choose to focus on punishing individual misconduct
2) Research Integrity committees want to improve the quality of research, but choose to focus on punishing individual misconduct
That focus is mind-bogglingly perverse when Big National Funder works by hiring researchers into one-year posts and rewarding by number of publications in (private, for-profit!) journals that only want novel studies with big effects.
I agree that research has an integrity problem. In that published results aren't accurate and accurate results aren't published. But policing individuals is the *least* effective way to improve the quality of the scientific record.
Imagine if Big National Funder put it's weight into ensuring research was true. If they full-throatedly changed what they value. Rewarded (with jobs, £££, and fame): teamwork, preregistered plans, open data & code, negative results, replication, error detection, and peer-review.
This isn’t unproven, controversial (or interesting if you’ve been on #ResearchCulture twitter for a while). There’s research-on-research that shows how different results are if science is conducted this way, and a lovely body of academics willing to help implement (see point 1)
So please, Big National Funder, don’t force universities to create thousands of committees, make forms and run tribunals to catch bad eggs. We know how to produce accurate research. Stop selecting against it! Otherwise it’s hard to believe you sincerely want research integrity.
In the end I remain optimistic. Those junior academics were *inspiring* yesterday, and I'm pleased and grateful Big National Funder gave us a chance to be heard.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk, now we all deserve a glass of eggnog and a few weeks off
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk, now we all deserve a glass of eggnog and a few weeks off
