Kan man være bare litt uredelig? - Om mindre alvorlige brudd på god vitenskapelig praksis

The Norwegian act of 2006 on ethics and integrity in research regulates serious breaches of good scientific practice that have been committed willfully or through gross negligence. Serious cases may be reported to the National commission for the investigation of scientific misconduct. Such cases are few in numbers. Far more frequent are cases of what we have come to call «less serious» breaches of good scientific practice. kan man være bare litt uredelig?41Local committees for research integrity are now established at all uni-versities in Norway, and these committees are supposed to process less serious cases of scientific misconduct. This may appear as a progress for research ethics, but we should be aware. It is not obvious what “less serious” cases refer to. It matters whether we go down the path of inte-grity and ethics or whether we approach the case as a matter of proble-matic scientific quality. Good research ethics should also be concerned with the risk of too much ethics.