Investigative Scientist NSF Alexandria, Virginia, United States
Abstract: Excellence in research pre-supposes responsible conduct of research. However, science ethics socialization and training often occur in informal conversations with individual mentors. By regulation, one duty of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Inspector General (OIG) is to investigate allegations of research misconduct (RM: plagiarism, falsification, and fabrication) with a nexus to NSF proposals, awards, programs, and award products (e.g., papers and presentations). The goal of this work was to summarize recent RM investigations to provide lessons for researchers and institutions to decrease the rate of RM. In fiscal year 2021, the NSF OIG Research Integrity & Administrative Investigations Division received 173 allegations and opened 31 cases. The most frequent allegation is that of plagiarism. We summarize observations from 10 years of plagiarism investigations in which NSF made RM findings (n = 134). Researchers in junior academic positions and those educated in other countries were over-represented among these cases. Based on this analysis, we suggest institutions develop improved faculty and student training, increase support for proposal-writing training, and consider more substantive pre-submission requirements for proposals. New principal investigators that may not yet be aware of U.S. funder citation expectations should especially benefit. NSF typically requires responsible conduct of research training in its actions against NSF-funded researchers found to have committed RM but improved proactive training might decrease the research misconduct rate.
