Guiding the Next Generation of NIH Investigators in Responsible Conduct of Research: The Role of the Mentor

Abstract

National Institutes of Health (NIH) K award recipients and their mentors were surveyed to investigate the role of the mentor. We found that a majority of mentors provided guidance in responsible research conduct (RCR), and that most of these relationships were deemed helpful. Mentors also responded that they played a greater importance in RCR training of their mentees than the mentees reported. Our results suggest both mentors and mentees report that mentors ideally should play a more important role in RCR training than was actually the case. For conflicting interests, subjects' protection, and misconduct, approximately 50% of K recipients found the mentor to be not at all important or only somewhat important for these areas of RCR training. We conclude the mentor's role is important but not optimal based on the results of our study cohort.

Making researchers responsible: Attributions of responsibility and ambiguous notions of culture in research codes of conduct

“…values that contribute to producing the best possible scienti c knowledge, 2. values that uphold good scienti c practice and responsibilities to colleagues, 3. values that must be realized in order to be a good researcher oneself, and 4. values that embody the responsibility of scienti c researchers towards society.…”

“…The rst class of values, relating to truthfulness and more generally to the proper production of scienti c knowledge, often includes values such as methodological rigour, transparency [2], and fair peer review [2][3][4]. Additionally, more abstract values like inquisitiveness [1,5,6] and integrity [7] are frequently mentioned in this respect.…”

“…A particularly prominent aspect appears to be fairness in the treatment of authorship and attribution of earlier work, that is to say: proper referencing [13]. Good mentorship [4,14] and the importance of good role models [6,15] are also identi ed in this context. These can be seen as ways to operationalize the recognition that the collective nature of science requires individual members to uphold that communal quality [16].…”

Pedagogical Support for Responsible Conduct of Research Training

“…For example, select NIH K series grants include research mentorship requirements. Four of the K grant awards require the applicant to specify both a mentor and an RCR training plan; in addition to other aspects of mentoring, the mentors are expected to provide guidance and advice to help tailor the applicant's RCR instruction . In a survey of K grant awardees and their mentors, both mentees and mentors agreed that the actual importance of the mentor's role was less than what it ideally should be; only half of the K grant recipients planned on including their mentor, and 40 percent of them reported that their mentor played no role in their RCR training…”

“…Elizabeth Ripley et al. assert that faculty members ought to participate in a mentor training seminar to support this role and that training should include mentoring skills, ethical theory and principles, and the development of ethical deliberation and interpersonal skills …”