Contract Research: Openness, Quality, Accountability

Report on contract research - No 4, 2003. Only available digitally.

The aim of this report is to contribute to an open and constructive debate on contract research in the research environments and also among the general public. Contract research is normally understood as research that is funded by an external party – a client.

The report is based on two investigations: a qualitative focus group study and a quantitative survey. Both investigations focus on the researchers’ own experiences with, perceptions of and attitudes towards contract research, and provide in tandem a basis for answering the research question of this report:

Are there grounds for having confidence in research even though its results stem from contract research, where an interested party funds the research with the intent of using the research for its own purposes?