Fostering STEM Practices through Education, Community, and Reputational Norms

This project seeks to prevent the occurrence of questionable research practices and foster research integrity among science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduate students. The aims of the project include developing training modules focusing on practices that promote integrity in science; facilitating the sharing of such practices within scientific communities; and encouraging the adoption of incentives that promote research integrity. The project seeks to develop an infrastructure in graduate education that fosters a culture of integrity. The project contributes to efforts that promote the reproducibility of scientific findings. The project involves a system-level research integrity intervention at an academic institution. The approach is designed to foster a culture that emphasizes best practices in the reporting of research findings among graduate students in STEM fields. This project will involve the development of research integrity training workshops and an online ethics collaborative network that encourages responsible research. While implementing these initiatives, the project team will assess potential changes in graduate student perceptions of questionable research practices and the importance of research integrity. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.