Largest ever research integrity survey flounders as universities refuse to cooperate - Science Magazine

The world’s largest multidisciplinary survey on research integrity is in danger of falling short of its goals after two-thirds of invited institutions declined to collaborate, citing the sensitivity of the subject and fearing negative publicity.

That left researchers leading the Dutch National Survey on Research Integrity on their own to scrape many email addresses and solicit responses.

“It was supposed to be a collaborative effort, but it ended up as a satellite on its own in the Solar System, trying to send out signals,” says Gowri Gopalakrishna, a postdoctoral researcher at the Amsterdam University Medical Center (AUMC) who is coordinating the €800,000 survey.

Lex Bouter, who studies research methods and integrity at the Free University of Amsterdam (VU), began to plan the survey in 2016 to address a lack of data about questionable research practices and scientific misconduct.

“I thought it was biased,” says Henk Kummeling, president of Utrecht University, which declined to participate.

“If you only ask for questionable research practices, you already know what you will get out of the survey.”.

In a statement sent to Science, Leiden University President Carel Stolker says his institution declined to participate because the survey is methodologically weak, but he did not provide details.

Kummeling says his university declined because he “did not get the impression the results would be useful for future policy” but denies that it was because of the sensitivity of the topic.

“Everything related to integrity is sensitive,” he says.

Jeroen de Ridder, a philosopher of science at VU who is not involved in the study, says he is disappointed that a unique opportunity to study research integrity across disciplines may be lost.

He denies the survey has methodological flaws: “This has become the most careful and thorough survey one could wish for,” de Ridder says.

Even some researchers at the collaborating institutions, wary of phishing scams, didn’t open their emails, says AUMC epidemiologist Gerben ter Riet, a co-investigator on the survey.