Have you ever felt pressured to exaggerate the importance or potential applications of your research findings?

Answer Explanations

• Yes

  user-327429
  Even in universities, which should be the primary generators of knowledge, there exists a mentality that knowledge is only valid and valuable if it can be applied. As a result, we are constantly pressured to demonstrate the applicability of the knowledge we generate, to translate it into something tangible and measurable. However, when the knowledge produced is truly innovative, it can be extremely challenging to predict its applicability in the context of current understanding. Scientists, therefore, often feel the pressure to outline how their knowledge might be applied, even if they are still decades away from achieving that solution.
• No

  user-656690
  No explanation needed! No one has ever pressured me to exaggerate the importance or potential applications of my research. I may have done it myself, but no one ever pressured me.
• Yes

  user-157759
  Sometimes Research findings are exagerated while they have little impacts in the Environment and the Public. 
• No

  user-938667
  I just report on the data I have collected.
• No

  user-160819
  my scientific advisors show me zero findings are also discoveries to publish
• Yes

  user-350867
  my pi wanted to overstate the results that were well beyond the study results. i never finished the publication and just moved on.
• Yes

  user-78454
   Pressure is felt at all times, at every stage of a career, and from all directions (journals, committees, leadership, etc.) for a simple reason: academia has become a 'rat race.' 
• Yes

  dingsli
  Don't we all do that in grant proposals?
• Yes

  user-317293
  I won’t do it, but i feel pressure to do it if i want to get in a decent journal.
• Yes

  user-787588
  I always feel pressure to write the potential applications of my findings when writing a manuscript. The fact is that reviewers usually give extra points to the potential application of the results.
• No

  user-509063
  At the University I did not feel the pressure to do so, it is more about conducting research. On European Funded projects, that is not something that is possible since everything is justified beyond shades of grey. 
• No

  user-641591
  When results are based on a few clinical trials, health researchers recommend them to implement in disease control programs, and is being considered by the policy makers change the control strategy to the new intervention therapy.
• Yes

  user-49719
  Grant proposals do poorly if you don't show practical applications, particularly to the VA.
• Yes

  user-828815
  Certain collaborators felt the results were more important and impactful than they were, and they took every opportunity to inflate the importance of the findings. They received a lot of air time as the research was on a very topical area.
• No

  user-819800
  Research is trying to answer postulations you’ve made. The results are what they are. You present these in the most scientific and factual way you can. That’s all you can and should do.
• Yes

  user-381665
  Every time I write a manuscript for a research paper or a grant proposal.
• No

  user-568782
  The attempt to exaggerate the importance or applicability of research results is a worrying concern in research integrity. Peer-review should normally take this aspect into account by making a revision suggestion to author or simply rejecting manuscripts that are subject to these unethical practices.
• Yes

  user-910251
  I had a situation where a reviewer wanted to insert their own perspectives into the research findings in our paper that steered the discussion more towards their viewpoint, as a result over emphasizing the effect of our study.
• No

  user-515289
  I was lucky and never felt this. I think my research findings were more or less interesting and there was no need to exaggerate them.
• No

  user-49529
  It is not correct to exaggerate any results, the correct thing is to describe them, nothing more.
• Yes

  user-99098
  A press for a scientific publication. But also in the introduction of many publications.
• No

  user-844708
  NO I had no such pressure to exaggerate my findings.
• Yes

  user-354415
  On several occasions I felt pressured to exaggerate the importance of my research findings because of the desire to impress stakeholders and funders. In some situation this pressure result from my believe in the important and value of the research which may not be objective. Nevertheless, I stick to objectivity in presenting my research findings
• No

  user-655358
  I always tried to be realistic and see what are the real potential application of my work
• Yes

  user-912190
  That's almost the only way to get a grant
• No

  user-330074
  B/c I am only interested to devote much of my effort on using the right type of research methods and obtaining the appropriate (unbiased) data, and then allow the data to speak the fact by itself! 
• No

  user-834789
  I am strongly motivated to use science to progress knowledge and tell the truth. 
• No

  user-461871
  I have not.
• Yes

  user-540634
  Journal editors sometimes push a bit too much to highlight relevant advances,  and even peer reviewers as well
• Yes

  user-266855
  I come from a society where boasting is frowned upon, thus communicating the importance of the study is stressful as I am not practised at it and I also assume it should speak for itself. To stand out among many applications there is pressure to extend applications of research findings. 
• Yes

  user-987379
  Sometimes, people like to know the money we get are used for a big change. While we do use them to change the way cancer is treated, odds are noone will care about a specific protein is up or downregulated, especially if we trey and find out why is that important. So the significance and importance are foten times bigger than they are. 
• Yes

  user-725521
  In the academy world, it's essential to get cited because of it, the more attractive you write the paper the more readings you get so there is always pressure to write an impactful paper
• Yes

  user-696023
  In manuscripts - using additional or other statistical tools to increase significance or add other significant correlations.
  From all sides - submit POSITIVE results (although every fool can produce negative results).
• Yes

  user-676638
  While writing grants, there is an invisible pressure to exaggerate the potential (expected) impact of the proposed research, so that review panels may approve the grant.
• No

  user-951296
  I have always been very straight forward regarding my studies, and mostly I have handled the publication processes my own. Therefore, I have not felt such pressure ever. 
  Additionally, I think that this issue is highly dependent on the ethics and principles of a researcher and the associated supervisor.
• Yes

  user-359902
  The pressure was much higher while working in an academic environment and luckily lower since working in consultancy.
• Yes

  user-193879
  yes, for fear of not having the article published.
• No

  user-451259
  I havent been pressured to exaggerate at all.
• Yes

  user-347762
  Often times there are reviewer comments that imply or even outright demand for authors to posthoc revise design/research aims or findings to over step the reasonable and responsible interpretation of the work actually done and the results as they actually exist.