[Scientific misconduct and medical research in Norway]

To evaluate the occurrence of scientific misconduct in medical research in Norway, 274 randomly selected Norwegian scientists were asked to complete a questionnaire on their knowledge and experience of deviations from the Medical Research Council's professional standard. Altogether 215 (80%) completed the questionnaire. Knowledge of severe misconduct was reported by 22% while 3% reported occurrence of falsification or fabrication of data within their own research group. Ten percent of the respondents knew of plagiarism, while 58% confirmed experience of less severe misconduct, most frequently misleading authorship. Nine percent had themselves contributed to one or more incidents of misconduct. Occurrence of misconduct was not related to area of research. The gap between admitting own misconduct and knowledge of misconduct by others was striking. According to 54% of the respondents, organized ethical education for young scientists would be an effective way of preventing misconduct. Altogether, the present data show that efforts are needed to prevent misconduct in medical research.