ABSTRACT
Science stakes a claim as a profession, and it is under this professional rubric that scientific conduct, misconduct, and its social control must be considered. In analyzing conduct, misconduct, and social control of illegitimate behavior in science, the boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate behavior are debatable and are to some extent variable by discipline and research areas. The funding agencies have also stepped into the arena of defining deviance by setting boundaries between appropriate conduct and misconduct, which serve as guides to investigations by their offices and by university-based committees. In response to requirements established by National Science Foundation and Public Health Service, the majority of research universities have policies and procedures for investigating allegations of misconduct, but their surveillance and investigation are open to question. In the social control of misconduct, institutions are better positioned than individuals, and universities and federal agencies have stronger sanctioning potential than do journals.
