Leading the people and leading the work: Practical considerations for ethical research.

Abstract

Scientific work is demanding and complex, requiring leading researchers to be simultaneously innovative and ethical in their work. In addition, those leading scientific teams must be able to influence the work being done and the lab members doing the work. Thus, both leadership and management skills are necessary to effectively navigate the organizational, social, and ethical components of the research process and to conduct rigorous, ethical, and high-quality scientific work. This article recommends several practices that foster excellence and integrity in research labs, including management behaviors for “leading the work” and leadership behaviors for “leading the people.” Researchers can take an intentional approach to leadership and management to create a robust environment for ethical research. Therefore, as the leader of their lab, a researcher’s routine behaviors should establish a healthy work environment and promote effective interpersonal interactions among lab members, which requires the design and implementation of routine procedures and structure to provide adequate oversight of the research. Further, this article addresses challenges that may arise when implementing leadership and management practices, along with strategies for overcoming these challenges. Avenues for future research and policy development related to leadership and management in scientific contexts are discussed.

Co-creating Research Integrity Education Guidelines for Research Institutions

“…This is based on the view that mandatory training is the only way to ensure that all researchers-rather than only those who already consider RI as importanttake part in RI education. Furthermore, training more senior researchers, especially regarding how to lead, manage and mentor their research teams responsibly and foster responsible research practices that warrant rigor, reproducibility and research quality, plays a crucial role in shaping institutional cultures including rigor, reproducibility, and integrity (Antes et al, 2016(Antes et al, , 2019McIntosh et al, 2020;Pizzolato et al, 2022). Our participants provided suggestions about how to provide training that is appropriate to different contexts (e.g., a session for seniors researchers to discuss the implications of new laws and policies, such as the General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR).…”

How can research institutions support responsible supervision and leadership?

“…They have a substantial role in raising the awareness and appreciation of RI among their team members through their commitment to RI and role-modeling behavior. Due to the large impact that research leaders can have on numerous researchers and the departmental research climate (e.g., unwritten rules and norms), they have the power to influence the research culture on the large scale (Mcintosh, Sanders, and Antes 2020). Leadership has some parallels to supervision, yet it is different because it involves the influence of the leader on a group of researchers, rather than a one-on-one relationship with a supervisee.…”

“…Moreover, differently from research supervisors, research leaders are responsible for activities concerning human, financial and material resources (Barker 2010). Despite the important role that leaders play in RI, there is little literature available on their RI responsibilities (Antes, Kuykendall, and DuBois 2019;Mcintosh, Sanders, and Antes 2020).…”

Emerging issues in the responsible conduct of psychological science.

“…Labs that discuss the ethical consequences of research design decisions and researchers who model ways to identify and respond to possible ethical missteps communicate to trainees the primary importance of conducting research in an ethical manner. In this issue, McIntosh, Sanders, and Antes (2020) provide a translational approach to improving RCR modeling and teaching by describing and applying theoretically driven, empirically informed management and leadership practices to research labs to foster integrity in research practices.…”