68 - How to Protect Scientific Integrity under Social and Political Pressure

Summary

Introduction: The Thesis

Policy-relevant research should meet strict scientific criteria, especially when explosive political or social topics are involved. It is therefore desirable that decisions about funding of research proposals as well as supervision of testing the research hypotheses and the implementation of the research design always are the responsibility of an independent scientific forum. Obviously, policy makers and practitioners should be allowed to leave their mark on the formulation of the broad research question because they are the major participants of the discussion about the implications and applications of the research results. But applied scientific research is first and foremost aimed at the growth of knowledge and the search for truth, and should be executed independently of the interests of stakeholders, policy makers, and politicians; otherwise research and researchers risk the chance of being corrupted.

This thesis is illustrated by means of a concrete case study related to our research on quality of day care in the Netherlands. The House of Representatives initiated this study, which was executed by three research groups united in the Dutch Consortium for Research into Child Care (NCKO) (Nederlands Consortium Kinderopvang Onderzoek, 2005). Ethically responsible participation in the planned follow-up study of the NCKO became impossible because of a boycott by one of the most powerful stakeholders in the domain of day care, and by the ambiguous role of the ministerial authority that commissioned the research. The Leiden research team refused to bow to the social and political pressures and left the consortium, leaving behind several million dollars of grant money.