Research Ethics

November 2nd 2005

Kirsten Ribu

Research Ethics The researcher's increased consciousness

of his or her role will translate into more ethical action.

http://www.ori.hhs.gov/education/products/montana_round1/issues.html

Ethical issues Some ethical issues relating to research

contracts have to do with who owns or controls the intellectual property resulting from the contract: What if the researcher's conclusions are not

consistent with the company's aims? Who controls what is published and how it is

published? Is the researcher obligated to submit results to

the company or agency prior to publication or is she disallowed from publishing results at all?

Compliance and Ethics Compliance and ethics are both necessary for the

conduct of responsible research. Compliance means that investigators and

institutions follow the rules that are set out for them.

Rules regarding research come from the federal government, from funders, and from the institution itself.

The essential elements of compliance are that an individual researcher knows the rules and that he or she is motivated to follow the rules.

Ethical Behaviour Ethical behavior requires more than simply

following the rules. Ethics is the study of how human action

affects other humans, animals,society, or the ecosystem.

Ethical analysis provides a way of making sense of rules and regulations.

Fabrication Fabrication, for example, is a type of research

misconduct. It is legally and ethically prohibited. Fabrication is the act of making up data or

results, then recording or reporting them as part of the research record. (Who did this recently??)

Fabrication is ethically wrong because it is likely to lead to harm to others.

It is legally required for funding agencies and research institutions to take actions against researchers who fabricate.

Research Research, is an "activity designed to test a

hypothesis, permit conclusions to be drawn, and thereby to develop or contribute to generalized knowledge (expressed, for example, in theories, principles, and statements of relationships).

Research is usually described in a formal protocol that sets forth an objective and a set of procedures designed to reach that objective

Collaboration and Competition

Scientific research and discovery is a model for collaborative effort.

Each new discovery is built upon the blocks of earlier discoveries.

Each researcher is dependent upon the work of researchers who have come before.

Increasingly, individual research projects require skill sets and knowledge bases from a variety of different disciplines.

Case study 1 http://www.ori.hhs.gov/education/products

/montana_round1/issuescase2.html

Research is competitive Researchers compete with one another for

funding from a limited pool of resources Labs that are working on similar questions

compete to be the first to confirm and publish particular results.

Institutions and labs compete for top researchers, post-docs, and students.

Students often feel that they are in competition for projects, credit, mentoring time and attention.

Competition cont.…. The researcher is expected both to share

data with other researchers and to be the first, when possible, to publish accurate results.

The researcher must continually choose between these.

Case study 2 http://www.ori.hhs.gov/education/products

/montana_round1/intercase1.html

Communication Clarity and openness will not solve all

ethical problems …. …. but being transparent about one's

intent, motives, and reasons for a chosen action provide good protection against unethical action.

Professional Responsibility

"If you are doing research with your own funds and only for your own enjoyment, you may, if you wish, make things up, or change the data points a little to make things come out the way that you would like.

Just as with solitaire, you might prefer to win without cheating, but sometimes you just want to win.

There is nothing wrong with conducting your private research as you might play a game of solitaire as long as you don't tell anyone that you discovered something new or prove some hypothesis.

It is only in making a false claim that you have done something wrong." Philosopher Bernard Gert

Does this make sense?

Research is a process, using defensible methodology that is done on behalf of society, in search of knowledge that can be shared and used.

Research is usually supported through public or private funds.

Research matters because it is judged to be important by knowledgeable peers.

Just as researchers have responsibilities to their colleagues and to the institution in which they work, they have responsibilities to potential and actual funders, to the audiences and publishers to whom they submit their work, and to peers.

Objectivity and accuracy "Objectivity, accuracy, and acknowledgement of

uncertainties in research work do not impose merely the negative requirement that research scientists avoid deliberate bias in their own work.

Objectivity also requires that they attempt to meet a positive demand: to present results in such a way as to avoid their misuses and misapplication by others and to speak out when others appear to misuse or misinterpret them."

Shrader-Frechette, K (1994). Ethics of Scientific Research. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, p. 55.

Next week Lecture on Open Software by Gisle

Hannemyhr