Authorship and Publication Practices: Evaluation of the Effect of Responsible Conduct of Research Instruction to Postdoctoral Trainees

This article gives the results of a survey whose main goal was to to test the effectiveness of responsible conduct of research (RCR) education for post-graduates in the areas of authorship and publication practices. Overall the responses of the subjects suggested a clear awareness of standards and practices in publication. The survey did not suggest, however, that RCR education isignificantly increased the level of ethically appropriate behavioral responses, or increased attention to ethical guidelines about authorship and publication practices. The authors argue that the results do not argue against continuing RCR education, but merely for the need to carefully articulate course goals and objectives with attention to the background and experience of the student audience when developing RCR curricula.