Procedural Justice, Identity, & Research Integrity

July 1, 2007 at 8:23 pm · Filed under Biomedical Research Ethics

From CRISP: “This study is an analysis of the relationships between scientists’ perceptions of procedural justice and their behaviors, both positive and negative, related to the integrity of their research. We will examine these relationships between the context of scientists’ work and their behavior at 3 different levels: the academic department, the institution, and the task environment which encompasses the web of external agents (funding agencies, regulatory bodies, disciplinary organizations, etc.) that relate directly to scientists’ research. Procedural justice here refers to individual’s perceptions about the fairness of decision-making in organizations, particularly in the procedures that determine the distribution of resources. We hypothesize that when scientists perceive violations of procedural justice, that is, believe that decision-making about resources that affect themselves and their work is unfair; they will exhibit negative “corrective responses” such as misbehavior in research or other conduct that runs counter to normative expectations in science. On the other hand, when scientists perceive procedural justice, they will be more likely to behave in accordance with the highest standards of research integrity. ”

I’ll be very interested to track down the findings of this R01 award to the HealthPartners Research Foundation. Considering how “unfair” many currently perceive peer review & funding decisions at the NIH … and that not all research institutions distribute research resources according to an objective and transparent formula … these data could be timely and enlightening.

Update: Some data have been published in the Sept 2007 issue of Academic Medicine.

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