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idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Science strives to produce reliable knowledge, advance our understanding of the world, and ultimately drive progress. This pursuit depends not only on individual excellence but also on collaboration, exchange, and support within the scientific community. While publishing flawed or fraudulent research often leads to reputational penalties for its authors, it remains unclear whether misconduct unrelated to research integrity – but harmful to the community – prompts a similar response. A new study now provides important findings for addressing sexual misconduct and strengthening scientific and social norms in science.
The study by Rainer Widmann, Michael E. Rose, and Marina Chugunova, now published in “The Review of Economics and Statistics”, has examined the question of whether the scientific community not only sanctions “bad science”, but also “bad citizenship”. The authors focus on sexual misconduct, which is prevalent in academia as in other fields. The study is the first to provide systematic and causal evidence on the consequences of sexual misconduct for perpetrators.
DATA AND APPROACH
The researchers constructed a dataset of 210 scientists at research-intensive universities in the United States across all disciplines against whom allegations of sexual misconduct have been made public between 1998 and 2019. In their analysis, they track citations to articles of alleged perpetrators that were published prior to allegations, and compare them to the citations received by other articles that stem from the same journal issue. To examine the consequences of allegations for the accused, they were matched to a set of observationally similar scientists.
THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY
The authors found that the scientific community cites prior work of alleged perpetrators less after allegations of sexual misconduct surface. Co-authorship networks play a role for spreading the information about the misconduct and mediate the response of other researchers: Researchers who are very close to the perpetrator in the co-authorship network (e.g., former coauthors) react the strongest and reduce their citations the most. The effect is particularly strong for close male peers. The effect is muted in more male-dominated fields, suggesting that field culture shapes responses to misconduct.
Comparing the results of the new study to previously found citation penalties for scientific misconduct, the magnitudes appear similarly sized. Finally, the authors document that alleged perpetrators face palpable career consequences: they publish and collaborate less following the allegations, and they are more likely to quit academic research altogether.
CONCLUSIONS AND SOCIETAL IMPACT
The findings show that the scientific community responds to sexual misconduct even though such misconduct does not cast doubt on the validity of scientific findings of the accused. The study thus provides important impetus for the discussion on how to address misconduct and strengthen professional norms in science. The results are particularly important given the increasingly collaborative and social nature of modern research. The study offers evidence relevant for professional organizations seeking to strengthen scientific and social norms.
The authors of the study are:
Dr. Rainer Widmann, Data Scientist
Michael E. Rose, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Marina Chugunova, Senior Research Fellow
ABOUT THE MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION AND COMPETITION
The Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition is committed to fundamental legal and economic research on processes of innovation and competition and their regulation. The Institute's research focuses on the incentives, determinants and implications of innovation. With an outstanding international team of scholars and excellent scientific and administrative infrastructure including the renowned library, the Institute hosts academics from all over the world and actively promotes young researchers. Through dedicated educational efforts, the Institute engages in the training and mentoring of early-career researchers and fosters knowledge exchange with national and international institutions. The Institute informs and guides legal and economic discourse on an impartial basis. As an independent research institution, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition provides evidence-based research results to academia, policymakers, the private sector as well as the general public.
To the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition: https://www.ip.mpg.de/en/
Dr. Marina Chugunova
Senior Research Fellow
https://www.ip.mpg.de/en/persons/chugunova-marina.html
Widmann, Rainer, Rose, Michael E., Chugunova, Marina (2025). Sexual Misconduct, Accused Scientists, and Their Research, The Review of Economics and Statistics, https://doi.org/10.1162/REST.a.1613
Sexual Misconduct in Academia
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