A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT

The level of social concern about any form of deviance reveals much ab out the society that disapproves of the behavior. In that light, why h as scientific misconduct recently received so much public attention an d opprobrium? Inquiring into this and related areas raises questions a bout the changing relationship between science and society. Rising con cern about scientific misconduct may indicate that the state and other powerful actors see the value of science clearly, a perception perhap s intensified by a growing reliance upon science, the value of science as a resource for power, and the resulting desire of powerful social groups to control science. An important factor is the increased import ance science has acquired within organizations (such as universities a nd businesses), requiring scientists to engage in more intense interac tions with the professionals who work there, including lawyers, accoun tants, public relations specialists, and administrators. ln itself, th is tighter coupling Of science to other social and organizational purp oses would be expected to increase scrutiny and the likelihood of inte rventions. Also, this more frequent contact makes competition for domi nance between professions more likely. Policies might be devised to re negotiate the relationship between science and society in a way that m ight alleviate the ''pathogenic pressures'' in the present environment . Specifically, the author suggests eight changes, including reducing and redistributing the financial rewards immediately available to scie ntists, their companies, and their universities by installing a form o f ''escrow'' account to hold profits for a fixed period of time; decou pling graduate student and postdoctoral support from research grants; and resisting the trend to replace intrinsic rewards and controls with extrinsic ones.