Research EthicsBIO 594

Ethics

Morality

Ethics

- Rules that govern personal behavior

- Rules that govern professional behavior

Research and Ethics

• Field conduct – environmental impact

• Take measures to leave minimal impact on environment and ecosystems

• Endangered species!

• Permits from the Division of Wildlife

• http://wildlife.state.co.us/RulesRegs/SpecialLicenses/

• Requires submission of protocol

• Must carry permit at all times during field work

• You are required to submit capture data to the DOW in January following your permit’s expiration

Research and Ethics

• Permits from the Division of Wildlife (cont)

• The DOW is usually very responsive

• Applications can take as little as a few weeks

• If your study area has endangered species, you must include language that details how you will handle them if captured

• Even if the species is not your study species, you must still document how you will mitigate impact on it

• National Parks

• Often more difficult to secure permits

• Can take 6 months to a year

• Unless well-justified, they typically will not let you euthanize or remove specimens from the park

Research and Ethics

• International Permits

• Difficult process

• Usually requires nationals on your work team

• Exporting specimens can be impossible

• Proprietary rights

• Logistical issues

Animal Use

• Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

• Strict guidelines for vertebrate animal use

• Proposed research must be approved by the IACUC

• IACUC comprised of research faculty, veterinarian and layperson(s) not affiliated with the Institution

•Animal Welfare Act

• Unless the vertebrate species are laboratory strains of the genera Mus or Rattus, the work must adhere to the Animal Welfare Act

• See: http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/legislat/usdaleg1.htm

• Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (cont.)

• If your institution receives funding from the Public Health Service (e.g., NIH, CDC), then you cannot have double-standards for care of animals (i.e., Mus/Rattus vs. all others)

• Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW)

• See: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/olaw/

• Institutional Assurance

Animal Use

• Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (cont.)

• The Institutional Officer (IO) has the legal responsibility for ensuring adherence to animal care guidelines

• For UNC, it is the Provost

• She can be fined or sent to jail for egregious violations

Animal Use

Human Subjects

• Institutional Review Board (IRB)

•Governs all research involving humans

• Protocols must be approved by IRB before implementation

•All protocols must include informed consent when appropriate

UNC Human Subjects

• The use of human participants in research at the University of Northern Colorado is regulated by University Policy 3-8-104, enacted by the Board of Trustees to ensure that all research carried out under the auspices of UNC conforms to ethical standards:  

• 3-8-104 Human Subjects. It is the policy of the University that all research and research-related activities, in which humans are used as subjects, shall be subject to review under current Public Health Service regulations by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). The involvement of human subjects in research covered by this policy shall be prohibited until the IRB has reviewed and approved the research protocol.

Sponsored Programs

• SPARC - UNC’s Sponsored Programs & Academic Research Center

•Compliance: http://www.unco.edu/sparc/compliance/gen.htm

•Grant administration

Scientific Misconduct

Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism or other practices that deviate from

commonly accepted practices within the scientific community

(Federal Register 54:32446, 8 AUG 1989)Governmental oversight:

Federal agencies can review your Federally-funded work at any time. Notes, site visits,

interviews with lab personnel, etc.

Mentoring

• Providing training and support to students or junior faculty so as to further their professional success

• Demonstrating a style and methodology of doing research

• Developing an analytical approach to selection of significant questions and choosing appropriate approaches to solving them

• Discussing the concepts in any subdiscipline and the evolution of those concepts over time

• Exploring and evaluating the literature of the discipline and the broader body of knowledge of which it is a part

• Discussing the ethical basis for scientific research

MentoringCharacteristics of the mentor-trainee relationship (Yentsch and

Sinermann, 1992)

• Considering, analyzing, and evaluating the work and conclusions of colleagues

• Transmitting, by example and discussions, the skills required for effective scientific writing

• Evaluating successful teaching techniques

• Facilitating access to the research community in the discipline (meetings, etc.)

• Illustrating the methodology and significance of networking in science

• Developing attitudes and approaches to the many interpersonal relationships involved in being a scientist

Mentoring (cont.)Characteristics of the mentor-trainee relationship (Yentsch and

Sinermann, 1992)

Laboratory Notebooks

• The principal investigator (PI) owns and is responsible for all data generated in the laboratory. Keep notes of sufficient detail that other competent individuals can repeat the experiment.

•Do not take notebooks home

Good Laboratory Practices

• Print with black ink

• Allow the first few pages of your notebook for a Table of Contents

• Write on only the front of the page

• Date each page in the upper left corner

• After reviewing each page, initial at the bottom

• Make sure each page is numbered. If your first experiment ends on page 5, the first page of your next experiment should start with 6

• Each experiment should have a concise title

• If you make a mistake, strike it with a single line, then initial and date the error. Do not scribble through mistakes or tear pages out. The original mistake must remain legible

In most government-regulated laboratories, notebooks must be bound volumes. Use GLP where possible -

including the following:

Conflicts

•Credit on manuscripts

• Schedule in the lab

• Proprietary and intellectual property

• Taking of reagents when leaving the lab