Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Ramat-Gan, Israel; School of Medicine, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Department of Infectious Diseases, Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
Clin Microbiol Infect. 2024 Nov;30(11):1474.e1-1474.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2024.07.015. Epub 2024 Jul 25.
We aimed to evaluate the prevalence and perception of scientific misconduct in infectious diseases (ID) and clinical microbiology (CM), as reported by the ID/CM community.
An anonymous online European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases survey circulated among society members from October 2023 to June 2024; the questionnaire included data on participants' views on their own and their colleagues' scientific misconduct in the last 5 years.
The survey received 220 responses. Responders were 73% ID physicians, 52% men, 56% aged 35-54 years, and represented 48 countries, mainly European (126 participants). The vast majority of participants (78%) reported that they did not personally commit scientific misconduct, whereas 54% reported witnessing misconduct by colleagues in their field. The most commonly committed misconduct by both responders and their colleagues was misconduct of authorship rules, 14% and 41%, respectively. Overall, 18% reported witnessing misleading reporting and 14% reported witnessing nonaccurate reporting of conflict of interest. Nevertheless, the majority (>60%) of responders reported high confidence in the integrity of published work in the field of ID/CM. Approximately one-third of responders were not aware of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases ethics advisory committee as an authority to which members can report misconduct.
Scientific misconduct, mostly related to violation of authorship rules, seems to be common in ID/CM. Efforts to improve scientific integrity should be made to keep trust in the scientific process.
我们旨在评估传染病学（ID）和临床微生物学（CM）领域的 ID/CM 社区报告的科学不端行为的流行率和认知情况。
一项针对欧洲临床微生物学和传染病学会会员的匿名在线调查于 2023 年 10 月至 2024 年 6 月期间展开；问卷内容包括参与者对过去 5 年自身及同事科学不端行为的看法。
该调查共收到 220 份回复。回复者中 73%为 ID 医师，52%为男性，56%年龄在 35-54 岁之间，来自 48 个国家，主要为欧洲国家（126 名参与者）。绝大多数参与者（78%）表示他们个人没有从事过科学不端行为，而 54%的人报告称在他们所在领域目睹过同事的不端行为。回复者和同事中最常发生的不端行为是违反作者规则，分别为 14%和 41%。总体而言，18%的人报告称目睹了误导性报告，14%的人报告称目睹了利益冲突的不准确报告。然而，大多数（>60%）的回复者表示对 ID/CM 领域发表作品的完整性有高度信心。约三分之一的回复者不知道欧洲临床微生物学和传染病学会伦理咨询委员会是一个成员可以报告不端行为的权威机构。
科学不端行为，主要与违反作者规则有关，在 ID/CM 领域似乎很常见。应努力提高科学诚信度，以保持对科学过程的信任。
