Biomedical Research, Stress and Unethical Behavior: Study of a Sample of Untenured Italian Researchers

Uncertain working conditions can induce stress and can lead to occurrences of unethical behavior in research activities, and ethical violations in biomedical disciplines are likely to affect care settings and medical therapies. The research presented herein compares the responses given by untenured Italian researchers in the biomedical (N = 124) and humanities (N = 107) fields to a questionnaire on stress and ethical behaviour. The results highlight undeniable levels of stress amongst the researchers investigated and the occurrence of unethical behavior by both sets of researchers, although this effect is more pronounced among researchers in the biomedical field.