ABSTRACT Introduction Reputation is of fundamental importance in science. It translates into the consideration, trust, and credibility that the scientific community exudes with the public. A growing number of events that undermine the quality and integrity of scientific research undermine the trust people place in it, facilitate the spread of an anti‐scientific culture, and, above all, affect the development of new generations of scientists. Methods Major categories of research integrity issues that emerged over the past decade were analysed, including citation rate, conflict of interest, predation, quality, reproducibility, translation, and transparency. Results Many scientists downplay the problem of declining ethics in biomedical research, confident that errors and fraud in scientific research will be exposed and eliminated sooner or later. They forget that this self‐correcting process of science almost invariably takes years, during which costly and potentially serious consequences can arise. Furthermore, the intense competition that has always driven scientific research progress prevents many from undertaking clean‐up efforts that could prove detrimental under current research evaluation systems. Conclusion The time has come to adopt practical measures to mitigate the negative consequences of the deterioration of ethics in biomedical research. We outline possible interventions to address the main ethical issues that have emerged over the past decade.
Guido Frosina (Thu,) studied this question.