Center for Open Science’s Year of Open Science Culminating Conference

Kathryn Zeiler (Boston University School of Law) and Jason Chin (Australian National University College of Law) to present on government regulation of university scientific misconduct investigations at the Center for Open Science’s Year of Open Science Culminating Conference.

Public trust in science is essential and seems to be declining. Recent high profile news reports have documented allegations and discoveries of fraud. Investigations by institutions that house suspected fraudsters are often conducted in secret, and, in many cases, the details of the findings are not shared with the public. Some universities disclose neither the details of investigations nor the process used. Some universities refuse to confirm whether an investigation was conducted. Currently, universities that benefit from vast amounts of government funding for research are not required to conduct investigations using particular procedures nor are they required to disclose any information to the public about investigations. The U.S. Office of Research Integrity expects institutions to have policies and procedures to address research misconduct. No government funder, however, has instituted specific requirements for how universities investigate misconduct and what they must disclose about their findings. We propose that all government funders of research adopt and enforce institutional investigation requirements. Our proposal includes detailed requirements regarding processes, timing, and eventual disclosure. We will discuss how the proposed requirements might properly balance researcher and institutional reputational concerns with the public’s right to information about fraud investigations.