An empirical investigation into the social, psychological, and structural correlates of researcher misbehaviour

This thesis examines the systemic, institutional, and individual-level correlates of questionable research practices (QRPs) across three empirical papers. Collectively, the papers contribute to the development of a comprehensive explanatory framework for understanding researcher misbehaviour across disciplinary and national contexts. Paper A draws on secondary analysis of the International Research Integrity Survey (Allum et al., 2023) to assess the relative association with individual- and institutional-level factors on self-reported QRP engagement. Employing a multilevel modelling approach, this study identifies key predictors of research practices at the measurement, individual and institutional levels. Paper A has been published in Research Integrity and Peer Review (Brooker & Allum, 2024). Paper B builds on these findings by investigating one potential mechanism underlying self-reported QRP engagement: researchers’ perceptions of their peers’ behaviours within their field. Using secondary data from a large-scale international survey conducted as part of the Practices, Perceptions, and Patterns of Research Integrity (PRINT) project, Paper B employs Bayesian multilevel modelling to test whether perceptions of peer behaviour predict individual self-reported engagement in QRPs. Paper C extends this line of inquiry by examining additional individual- and system-level correlates of QRPs. Specifically, it explores the roles of researchers’ values, motivations, normative commitments, epistemic orientations, personality traits, and political orientations. Unlike the preceding studies, the data analysed in Paper C were collected specifically for this thesis and comprise survey responses from researchers working across a range of disciplines and countries.