Perceptions of scientific misconduct among graduate allied health students relative to ethics education and gender.

A study was conducted to determine the influence of ethics education and gender on students' perceptions of scientific misconduct. Subjects were graduate students from five allied health professions programs at a single university, who were asked to complete an online survey consisting of 48 questions (dichotomous and Likert-scale questions): 36 questions assessed the perceptions of students regarding the concerns of scientific misconduct (dependent variable), 10 were demographic questions, and 2 were free-text questions soliciting clarification of any responses. Out of 202 graduate students, 72 students (54 female, 17 male) completed the survey. Forty (56%) of the participants had taken at least one ethics course, while 31 (44%) had not taken any ethics courses. Analysis of Scientific Integrity Scores calculated from survey responses of health professions students revealed that students who had taken an ethics course scored significantly higher on the scale of the use of humans in research than students who had not taken an ethics course. Students who had taken medical ethics courses scored significantly higher on the scale regarding genetics research than students who had taken other ethics courses. Women scored significantly higher than men on the scale regarding the use of animals in research.