NSF Fellows' perceptions about incentives, research misconduct, and scientific integrity in STEM academia.

ABSTRACT: There is increased concern about perverse incentives, quantitative performance metrics, and hyper-competition for funding and faculty positions in US academia. Recipients of the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships (n = 244) from Civil and Environmental Engineering (45.5%) and Computer Science and Engineering (54.5%) were anonymously surveyed to create a baseline snapshot of their perceptions, behaviors and experiences. NSF Fellows ranked scientific advancement as the top metric for evaluating academics followed by publishing in high-impact journals, social impact of research, and publication/citation counts. The self-reported rate of academic cheating was 16.7% and of research misconduct was 3.7%. Thirty-one percent of fellows reported direct knowledge of

SUBMITTER: Roy S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10080524 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature