Cultural Influences on Professional Decision-Making in Research

Responsible conduct of research (RCR) education, when delivered effectively, can increase researchers’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to ethical conduct. However, RCR education is highly westernized and lacks adequate integration of cultural considerations relevant to RCR education. Culturally sensitive RCR education is needed to promote learning transfer beyond the training environment, particularly for researchers from diverse cultural backgrounds. This study aims to examine preferences for certain professional decision-making strategies among researchers from different cultural backgrounds and use this information to improve RCR curriculum.

We will conduct in-depth interviews with 30 researchers from the U.S. and 30 researchers from East Asian countries, given that researchers from East Asian countries make up a sizeable portion of international researchers working in the U.S. We will then use the findings from the interviews to improve an existing RCR curriculum centered on developing professional decision-making skills. The updated RCR curriculum will be evaluated to examine its effectiveness.

Data collection is in progress. We expect findings from the interviews will inform the revisions to the RCR curriculum centered on professional decision-making skills. We anticipate that the updated, more culturally inclusive RCR curriculum will be more effective in cultivating the use of professional decision-making strategies among researchers from diverse backgrounds.

Data collection in progress.