There's a new program called Restoring Professionalism and Integrity in Research, or RePAIR, aimed at trying to rehabilitate researchers "who have engaged in wrongdoing or unprofessional behavior," a blog post at the Office of Research Integrity's webpage says. According to ORI, the RePAIR program includes "an intense period of intervention, with multiple participants from different institutions who spend several days together at a neutral site, followed by a lengthy period of follow up activities back at their home institution.
While ORI cannot formally endorse the program, the post notes that "ORI staff do find RePAIR an intriguing and high-minded experiment."
At his blog, DrugMonkey says that he "[likes] the idea of experimenting. But I have to admit I'm skeptical." He writes that he thinks that many instances of academic misconduct are not "done out of ignorance," but are due to people being "desperate and/or weak and [allowing] the pressures of this career path to nudge them down the slippery slope." That, DrugMonkey adds, cannot be fixed by such a short program.