"The understanding of some gray area issues is clearer."
Why did you think of setting up such a scientific research integrity course six years ago? Muming Poo told the reporter of Liberation Daily that the current environment of scientific research integrity is not very good, and students are also confused and have not formed much knowledge. For example, should the same laboratory report other people's misconduct? Where is the boundary between bragging and faking? In the actual scientific research practice, there are many problems in the gray area, and there are also many fakes.
In order to make future researchers have a clear understanding of scientific misconduct from the beginning, Muming Poo offered this course voluntarily. Previously, he had taught a course on research ethics in American schools, but the students' interest was not very high. Therefore, when he plans to set up the course of scientific research integrity in the institute of neurology, in order to increase the attraction of this compulsory course, he starts with oral report and scientific research writing, and takes scientific research exchange, scientific research ethics and scientific research innovation as the three major contents of the course. "The integrity of scientific research is the core. Although there are skills in communication, there must also be honesty. There is no doubt that innovation must have integrity. "
"I probably knew what behavior was considered scientific misconduct before, but now I have a clearer understanding of some gray areas." Li Shenghao, a third-year student in the Institute of Neurology, said, for example, you can only delete data if you clearly know which data are problematic and why there are problems. Instead of getting five data, you can selectively clean up the "ugly" data. This course of scientific research integrity has attracted many graduate students. Judging from the three classes attended by reporters from Jiefang Daily, no one was late and left early, and all of them expressed their opinions in the discussion. After hearing about this course, other universities and research institutes, such as the National Science and Technology University, showed great interest, so they will video eight lessons. Muming Poo said that a course feedback link will be added this year to improve future courses.
In the past, academic circles and society were too tolerant of scientific misconduct.
Recently, the General Office of the Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued "Several Opinions on Further Strengthening the Construction of Scientific Research Integrity". Muming Poo spoke highly of "zero tolerance for scientific misconduct". "In the past, academia and society were too tolerant of scientific misconduct. If misconduct is found abroad, this person's career is over. "
Muming Poo introduced that the definitions of misconduct in scientific research at home and abroad are similar, that is, forgery, untruthfulness and plagiarism in the presentation, execution and evaluation of scientific research projects or reports of scientific research achievements. Forgery is to fabricate experimental results out of thin air and record or report these results. Failure to act refers to manipulating scientific research materials, instruments or experimental procedures, changing or omitting data or results, so that scientific research results cannot be accurately expressed in scientific research records. Disloyal behavior also includes disloyalty in analyzing and describing data, for example, some beginners do not use initial data; The data source is not clear, and there is no comparison between the control group and the experimental group. The most intolerable thing is to choose only those results that look the best, and omit the data that will affect the conclusion of the paper. Plagiarism refers to stealing other people's ideas, procedures, achievements or words without properly explaining the source, including when reviewing confidential scientific research proposals or papers.
"It is quite common to copy other people's words and change only a few words." Muming Poo is now the executive editor of National Science Review. Once the editorial department received a summary and found that the whole paragraph was copied from others. In fact, there is special software to check how many identical words are connected together. Some "rigorous" software will be considered plagiarism as long as it has six identical words. "Only one copy is allowed, and it is quoted from the original text, but the source must be indicated."
In addition to copying others, there is also a kind of self-plagiarism, that is, directly using your previously published articles, such as adding current experimental data to previous papers. Muming Poo suggested that if you want to express the same point again, you can do some rewriting.
Generally speaking, there are several rules for judging misconduct. First of all, there is a major deviation in the scientific community's understanding of maintaining the integrity of research records. Second, the misconduct was committed on purpose. Third, misconduct is confirmed by superior evidence.
Not because the risk is too great, but because of the basic attitude of doing scientific research.
In the experiment, what should I do if I find that the teacher's hypothesis is not in line with expectations? Muming Poo told a story to the reporter of Liberation Daily. Many years ago, all students in neurology often disagreed with their tutors and were regarded as "a challenge to authority" by others. When studying abroad, he asked Muming Poo to write a letter of introduction, which Muming Poo readily recommended, and wrote a special sentence-this student is famous for his love and argument with his tutor. Today, this student is a professor at Stanford University. "If the assumption does not meet expectations, it means that there may be a problem with this assumption. If you give up, you may give up a valuable discovery. " Muming Poo said that this is the charm of science. Science can't get what you want, but you think differently. The results of three experiments are different, which may indicate that the technology failed the test. We might as well try a recognized result with this technology.
What should I do if I find mistakes in my previously published papers? "Then write another paper and point out your mistakes." Muming Poo said that we should put an end to misconduct in scientific research, not because it is too risky, but because of the basic attitude of doing scientific research.