Research integrity has become complacent and lacks transparency, MPs hear

Experts have told MPs that research is suffering from complacency, a lack of transparency, poor statistical skills, and too much weight being given to “exciting” research.

The concerns were raised during an evidence session of the parliamentary science and technology committee’s inquiry into research integrity, held on 24 October.

MPs asked witnesses for their opinion on the current state of research integrity, to which Ottoline Leyser, former chair of the steering group on the culture of scientific research at the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, said that a culture had developed “where people are rewarded for being right and being exciting.”

She added, “Those things have nothing to do with science and the research method that we want to espouse. These norms of science that everybody would agree to if you pushed them are being not …