Institutional Transformation: Empowering Faculty to Cultivate a Culture of Ethics in Engineering

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Most scientific ethics training programs rely heavily on online or in-person training, but such programs are limited in their efficacy and often fail to address the broader cultural aspects of scientific ethics and scientific misconduct. The goal of this project is to cultivate a culture of scientific ethics at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. The investigators will do so by using a diversity of approaches at multiple levels within the school. A major component will be to empower faculty and other stakeholders to create a self-perpetuating culture of scientific ethics at their institution. Social surveys will be used to assess and understand the current ethical culture at UC San Diego. Next, the investigators will organize a retreat with deans, faculty, and administrators to discuss scientific ethics and hold a workshop based on findings from conversations at the retreat. The workshop will also be used to conduct a comprehensive literature review on pathways for creating a culture of scientific ethics, and to develop specific plans for doing so at UC San Diego. The final research component will be systematically testing and evaluating the impact of their activities on scientific ethics at their university. The main goal of this study is to understand how to create a culture of scientific ethics at a major university and to then use that information to create institutional transformation at UC San Diego. The project moves beyond current approaches to studying and encouraging scientific ethics in four ways: (1) comparing faculty perceptions to gauge the presence of an ethical culture; (2) empowering faculty as agents of cultural change; (3) applying department specific approaches to encouraging and cultivating a culture of ethics; and (4) emphasizing the importance of local cultures and climates for shaping ethical behavior, rather than simply explaining it as the behavior of one or two unethical individuals. These four novel elements will advance understanding of research integrity and provide tools for affecting cultural changes towards ethical science at major research universities. Overall, the project will benefit society by promoting ethical teaching, training, and learning, and by nurturing a community of researchers who will be better prepared to engage in discussions about ethical dimensions of academia and research. 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.