Responsible Conduct of Research provides an overview of ethical, legal, and social issues in scientific research for science students, trainees, and professional scientists. This book gives an in-depth analysis of a wide array of topics, including ethical theory and decision-making, misconduct, questionable research practices, research record-keeping, data sharing, data auditing, reproducibility, authorship, publication, peer review, intellectual property, conflict of interest, mentoring, safe research environment, animal experimentation, research with human subjects, and social responsibility. Authors Adil E. Shamoo and David B. Resnik include several case studies and questions at the end of each chapter that can serve as a basis for further analysis and discussion. The concluding chapter of the book describes some steps that researchers, institutional officials, government agencies, and scientific organizations can take to promote ethical conduct in scientific research. In this 4th edition of Responsible Conduct of Research has been updated to include references and discussions of new and evolving topics, such as digital image manipulation, self-plagiarism, retractions, publication on pre-print servers, harassment, research with human biological samples, revisions to the Common Rule for research with human subjects, dual use research, the COVID-19 pandemic, providing science advice, and interactions with the media.

Since the early 2000s, the field of Responsible Conduct of Research has become widely recognized as essential to scientific education, investigation, and training. At present, research institutions with public funding are expected to have some minimal training and education in RCR for their graduate students, fellows and trainees. These institutions also are expected to have a system in place for investigating and reporting misconduct in research or violations of regulations in research with human subjects, or in their applications to federal agencies for funding. Public scrutiny of the conduct of scientific researchers remains high. Media reports of misconduct scandals, biased research, violations of human research ethics rules, and moral controversies in research occur on a weekly basis. Since the 2009 publication of the 2nd edition of Shamoo and Resnik's Responsible Conduct of Research, there has been a vast expansion in the information, knowledge, methods, and diagnosis of problems related to RCR and the multitude of ethical issues of human subject protections. With the climate surrounding research conduct always shifting, developments in the field make an updated edition a necessity. All chapters have been revised and reflect the most current RCR landscape. New or further-developed topics include social responsibility and misconduct in social sciences, climate-change research, authorship, and peer review. Updates include new information on research involving human subjects or "vulnerable" biological subjects, as well as genetic research. Just like in previous editions, all chapters contain recent case studies and legal examples of various subjects.