Over the past 20 years a consensus has developed that the responsible conduct of research (RCR) is vital for the continued health of the scientific enterprise and its stakeholders-the federal government, scientific disciplines, individual researchers, institutions, graduate trainees, and the public (NAS, 1995; PHS, 2000). RCR encompasses adherence to the rules, regulations, norms and practices of science. Within universities the values of science are directly transmitted to graduate students through their research mentors and indirectly through the rules, procedures, and general RCR climate of the departmental program in which they are enrolled. There are over 63,000 current members of the American Psychological Association with Ph.D.s that required science training and approximately 1,000 new Ph.D.s enter the field each year. Like other sciences, the direct contributions of psychological research to public health and welfare have increased heightening its public visibility especially in cases of scientific misconduct. Despite the fact that research psychologists are uniquely trained to develop psychometrically valid instruments to understand and evaluate RCR training, there has been no examination of the role of mentorship and departmental climate on the socialization of graduates students in the responsible conduct of psychological research. The broad goal of this 2-year project is to develop and validate web-based self-report instruments to understand how graduate students are socialized in the responsible conduct of psychological research involving human subjects. Drawing upon the small but growing theoretical and empirical data base on RCR in general and ethical standards for psychological research in particular this 2-year project will develop and validate instruments measuring 2 constructs hypothesized to influenced student RCR acquisition: RCR Mentoring In Psychology and the RCR Psychology Department Climate. An instrument to measure Psychology Students' Perceived RCR Preparedness will also be developed. After reliability and validity has been established the instruments will be used to test the theory-based prediction that RCR mentoring and RCR department climate function individually and jointly to influence psychology graduate students' confidence in their ability to independently apply core RCR principles in their science careers. The broad long-term goal of this project is to provide psychometrically validated measures of RCR mentoring, RCR institutional climate, and students' perceived RCR competencies for use by psychology departments in self-studies designed to improve science integrity education and that other disciplines can begin to adapt to their own training needs. ? ?
| Fisher, Celia B; Fried, Adam L; Goodman, Sabrina J et al. (2009) Measures of Mentoring, Department Climate, and Graduate Student Preparedness in the Responsible Conduct of Psychological Research. Ethics Behav 19:227-252 |
| Fisher, Celia B; Fried, Adam L; Feldman, Lindsay G (2009) Graduate Socialization in the Responsible Conduct of Research: A National Survey on the Research Ethics Training Experiences of Psychology Doctoral Students. Ethics Behav 19:496-518 |
