Good mentors boost integrity, survey finds - Erik te Roller in Haarlem, Research Professional News

This resource first appeared in issue #113 on 12 Mar 2022 and has tags Becoming A Manager: Managing Individuals, Becoming A Manager: Coaching

An important part of our jobs is mentoring juniors and trainees in our team, but also from research groups. Indeed, even the PIs we work with we’re often mentoring in some kid of technical area.

It turns out that matters in a number of surprising ways. Juniors who are well-mentored then go on to be less likely to commit research misconduct. It’s not hard to imagine how that might be; they’re less lost, less at-sea, and feel more connection to the research community. If we have a research trainee working with us, and we show them how to get their work done and help them when they need it, they’re going to struggle less, maybe less likely to cut corners in a moment of desperation. It’s really hard to come back once you’ve started cutting corners!