Encouraging and Rewarding the Whistleblower in Research Misconduct Cases

There are many pressures that militate against work colleagues "blowing the whistle" or "ringing the bell" on each other in respect of research misconduct. These pressures result in a significant proportion of such conduct not coming to light at all or coming to light later or less straightforwardly than is desirable. There need to be meaningful incentives for colleagues to draw to the attention of authorities concerns that they have about adherence by others to their obligations in relation to research integrity. The United States has a distinctive process under the False Claims Act which provides significant financial encouragement to such persons, known as "relators" under the qui tam scheme, including in the context of proven research misconduct. This editorial reviews prominent occasions on which qui tam actions have been taken and considers the ramifications of a US$112.5 million settlement arrived at in 2019 involving research misconduct at Duke University. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the incentives that lie at the heart of the United States False Claims Act and canvasses whether it should be emulated in other countries.