It is advisor attitudes that are likely to shape students’ attitudes towards questionable research practices

In debates on the validity of academic research findings, focus has been drawn to socalled questionable research practices, commonly understood to encompass a laundry list of behaviours that can increase the likelihood of statistically significant (and so more publishable) results. Anand Krishna and Sebastian M. Peter report on research examining attitudes to questionable research practices among students who have recently completed their theses. Although almost half had engaged in at least one questionable practice, the practices students most often admitted to were issues of reporting results, many of which can be solved by adopting open science standards of data sharing. Among the more important findings was that advisor attitudes matter: if students thought their thesis advisors endorsed questionable practices, they were more likely to admit engaging in such practices.