Conflict of Interests for Researchers - Possible Solutions - Essay Example

Conflict of Interest for Researchers Before one plunges deeply into the main issues that need to be raised, one must not fail to mention that researchers are are human just like other people. So, if anyone says that there is conflict of interests among them, one should not be too surprised. Crossen (1996) identifies three conflicts of interest which are recurrent in research. The interests are the sponsor’s, the media’s and the researcher’s (p. 20). It may not be wrong to assume that long gone are the days when the results of researches can be thought of as true and factual.

This is because researchers are these days continually sponsored by corporate organisations to conduct researches whose results should be what will bring out the best in their goods and/or services. The implication is that the purpose of conducting researches seems to have drastically changed from providing useful and valid information to serving as a tool for boosting sales and patronage. This situation has largely put the integrity of researchers at stake as many people now find it very difficult to believe the results of their research.

Researchers frequently find themselves at crossroads where they have to decide what to do; whether they would cook researches or whether they would remain clean and uphold the core ethics of their calling. As opposed to professional ethics, some researchers actually conduct researches but bearing in mind that they must arrive at a particular conclusion, some of them often manipulate samples. For example, in the beverage industry, a researcher whose intention is to show that adults prefer drinking alcohol to drinking any other beverages might go the full hug by changing results of the research in order to accommodate the intended result.

A similar thing can happen in any other industries. It is on record that it also happens furtively in the health industry (Crossen 1994 p. 36). What seems to happen most times is that the researchers use what they have to get what they want. They might have a research that originally slightly favored an organisation, but because they need money to fund their research, they would further bend the result of the research so that it obviously favors the organisation they have in mind. The researchers do this because they are aware of the fact that they need resources to effectively carry out and conclude their research.

In finding a solution to this awkward trend, everyone has a role to play. There is need for proper checks and balances. The umbrella body of researchers is supposed to be there to control the activities of its members. It’s so sad that this body seems to be doing little or nothing to check the activities of researchers. Howbeit that researcher bodies have not lived up to their billing, there is also the media (which has its own issues to also settle). The media, often regarded as the fourth estate of the realm, is supposed to also check the activities of researchers.

But as things are, what seems to be in operation is the belief that everything has a price; meaning that even the media may be bought over at some points. However, the moment the media refuses to be bought and researcher and the umbrella bodies perform their duties as they ought to, things would change for the better. Researches should be given a keener scrutiny. The academia also has a role to play. Dons of tertiary institutions should play important roles in checking researches to make sure that they are factual.

Researchers should also check the activities of one another. Reference Crossen, C. (1994) Tainted Truth: The Manipulation of Fact In America. Simon and Schuster, New York.