Ethical conduct of accounting researchers: differences between belief and praxis

Abstract

This study addressed the issue of ethics in scientific accounting research. The primary aim was to understand how accounting researchers perceive ethical issues in three dimensions: A) Ethical issues related with the scientific research process; B) Ethical issues about the relation between supervisor and researcher and C) Ethical issues among peers in the development of joint research and in the dissemination of results. For this purpose, a questionnaire was developed based on Gustafsson et al. 1984; Creswell (2003), Needles, Jr., (2008), Miyazaki and Taylor (2008) and Leite et al. (2010). A total of 56 questionnaires were returned, which represents 26% of the population of 218 permanent professors affiliated with the 18 Brazilian graduate programs in accounting. Overall, our findings suggest that all issues proposed in the questionnaire were considered ethical values of extreme importance in the respondents' perception. Additionally, these results also suggest that they do not practice some values they considered important with the same intensity, while other values that are not regarded as extremely important are intensely practiced, and we cannot disregard these differences. Finally, based on the Foucault´s concept of the relationship with the self (FOUCAULT, 1984), we think that researchers should carefully consider the results of this study in order to hone their ethical behavior, as this reflects the consensus on moral behavior in a significant sample of Brazilian accounting researchers.