Promoting an Environment of Scientific Integrity: Individual and Community Responsibilities

Abstract

Concerns about the integrity of scientific investigations have increased sharply in the wake of recent high profile reports of scientific misconduct in the social, physical, and clinical sciences; some of these concerns affect the Journal of Consumer Research directly. Many current discussions about scientific discovery have shifted from trying to understand how new findings might reshape conceptual understanding to questioning whether new findings are even to be believed. When the fundamental quality of research comes under scrutiny, individual scholars and the academy as a whole are challenged to examine how that research is carried out. In our first year as editors, we have frequently been asked to endorse, adopt, or comment on proposed solutions to the problem of ensuring scientific integrity and ethics. As editors considering possible routes forward, we have noted that the potential problems differ: for example, outright data fabrication is distinct from opportunistic data collection methods and from improper rounding of p -values. To grasp the scope of the problem it is critical to distinguish among these issues, to delineate methods for investigating and resolving them, and to understand their interplay. For example, solutions focusing primarily on data handling neglect other important priorities in the development of a literature. In this editorial, we advocate a course of action that speaks to the entirety of the research process.