In attempting to promote the integrity of scientific research, most, if not all research organizations would prefer an internal, self-regulatory approach over one favoring compliance with externally imposed mandates. How well self-regulation works for this purpose, however, and its variability across universities, remain open questions. Appropriate targeting of educational interventions or organizational change initiatives to promote research integrity require that organizations have the ability to collect reliable data to benchmark baseline conditions, to assess areas needing improvement, and to subsequently assess the impact of specific initiatives. As the locus of the majority of the biomedical research conducted with extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Academic Health Centers. (AHCs) research integrity climates are particularly salient. The creation of valid, reliable, and standardized tools for self-monitoring on the part of AHCs is a vital step in facilitating their capacity for effective internal self-regulation. The current NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) program, itself a change initiative to hasten the translation of basic and clinical research findings into practical health benefits, provides a timely opportunity and logical venue in which to begin implementing such standardized measurement. The dual goals of this R21 project are, 1) to develop a tool the Uniform Research Integrity Climate Assessment instrument (U-RICA) - that would allow AHCs to collect reliable, valid, and actionable data to stimulate internal discussions and initiatives to promote research integrity, and 2) to lay the groundwork for the adoption and dissemination of this tool within the framework of the CTSA Consortium. Assessing and establishing the psychometric properties (internal &test-retest reliability;construct and predictive validity) of the U-RICA will be accomplished by fielding the instrument in a large, nested, random sample of academic researchers employed in 10-15 AHCs selected from among the top 75 U.S. research universities. To facilitate the adoption of the U-RICA, we have empanelled a group of opinion leaders from within the ethics cores of several vanguard universities currently holding CTSA awards. Through quarterly meetings and discussions with these leaders, we will conduct a feasibility analysis to identify opportunities, stakeholders, and possible strategies as well as perceived risks, potential hurdles, and threats facing the success of propagating use of the U-RICA tool in the CTSA Consortium.

This project will provide concrete materials and mechanisms to help academic health centers foster and maintain climates and cultures supportive of research integrity. By so doing, this project will benefit the public health by helping to ensure that medical and public health research conducted in these settings is of the highest quality and integrity.

R21RR025279

2008-09-29

2012-04-30