Stress Linked to Medical Research Fraud

New pressures for funding, fame and profit have created an atmosphere that leads some scientists to commit medical research fraud, the chairman of an Institute of Medicine study committee reported today.

Arthur H. Rubenstein, a University of Chicago professor, said the field of biomedical research has seen “increased stresses” from competition for decreased funding. And he said the race to develop new drugs makes scientific misconduct more likely than a decade ago.

“All of these create new stresses wherein people” would be more apt to get involved in misconduct, Rubenstein said at a news conference. “The traditional methods (of guarding against research fraud) may not be adequate at this time.”

A report released by the committee today said “excessively permissive” attitudes by institutions tend to allow careless and sometimes fraudulent medical research. It said better research standards and systematic ways of investigating laboratory irresponsibility are needed.

“Although the committee believes that serious misconduct in science is rare . . . it concludes that institutions fail to detect and correct early deviant behavior primarily because of an excessively permissive research environment that tolerates careless practices,” the committee report said.

Funding pressures and an overemphasis on publication of research in scientific journals also encourage what the committee called “substandard practices.”

The Institute of Medicine, chartered by the National Academy of Sciences, organized the 17-member committee in 1987 after a series of fraudulent and careless laboratory reports came to light. The committee was charged with developing proposals to strengthen professional standards in the nation’s federal and academic laboratories.