Misconduct in clinical research - The Scandinavian experience and actions for prevention

The Nordic countries. Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, started relative ly early with the establishment of national committees dealing with scienti fic misconduct within the health sciences. They originally included slightl y different parts of the dishonesty spectrum, when launching their independ ent control bodies, but have since then converged. with the rnd result that ail four. countries now include all aspects of the spectrum, In other word s, the ranges now cover alleged fabrication and plagiarism on one side. and quarrels about authorship and terms of procedure within cooperating groups of scientists on the other. The Nordic experiences have made it possible t o estimate a prevalence rate of 1-2 presented casts per million inhabitants , of which only approximately 1/5 is serious. The preventive actions have b een publications of guidelines for: scientific co-operation: raw data stora ge; authorship. Further, educational initiatives include postgraduate cours es for senior scientists: postgraduate courses for junior scientists: influ ence via inquiries and investigations. The Nordic experiences point strongl y to the necessity of an independent national control body.