A graduate student oath -- will it help?

by Beyond Lab

University of Toronto created a graduate student oath to let the students remember their social and moral responsibilities, in other words, to conduct research ethically. I think one of the reasons is to try to avoid so many scientific misconduct in the scientific research area. To name a few, the Korean tem cell scandal, the recent retract of an important paper by Linda Buck, a Nobel prize laureate. There are not only irreproducibility of their data, but also the way they put all responsibility to one of the co-first authors. All these are absolutely not normal and should not happen in the pursuit of science.

Will this oath help? I completely doubt it. -- The overall scientific environment is so competitive, mainly financially, that researchers have to publish before their competitors and have to publish in good journals to secure enough support for their continuing research, and their personal salary in many cases.

Is there any way out? Things have to be changed gradually. Higher NIH budget (in US) is definitely one of the first things to do.