authorship, plagiarism, preventing and resolving conflicts: ethical issues in the research arena jay...
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Authorship, plagiarism, preventing and resolving
conflicts: Ethical issues in the research arena
Jay Heinecke9-28-2006
Resolving Conflict
Identify Issues before they arise
Clear understanding of arrangements
Collaborative studies and establishing an independent research program
An ounce of prevention...
Plagiarism?
Rosalind Franklin's 1952 X-ray crystallography picture of B-DNA.
Watson was shown this picture by Wilkins in early 1953.
From the picture it was possible to calculate: 1) the distance between bases (3.4A) 2) the length of the period (34A) 3) the rise of the helix (36 degrees)
The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of
DNA: James D. Watson
Why are issues related to authorship, plagiarism and preventing and resolving conflicts
critical to the scientific enterprise?
MythsScience is driven by the quest for knowledge
self-lesscooperativetruth
RealitiesScience is driven by scientists
egocreditcultural relativism
• Papers = Currency of Science– Grants– Promotions– Peer recognition
• Major Credit = First and Last Author– First = Person who did the work– Last = Person who paid for the work
• Biological Science is Becoming Big Science
Scenario: Ethics of Resource Sharing
Transgenic mouse projectGraduate student2 years of workInteresting phenotype
Major competitor requests mouseHow long do you wait?
Until publication of initial paper?2 years?
Scenario: Authorship Issues
Transgenic mouse project
graduate student project
initial description of model published
PI shares mouse with other investigators
PI listed as author on paper
graduate student is not acknowledged
Scenario: Authorship Issues
ProjectComplex translational study
Requires major effort:ClinicianBasic Scientist
Exciting results with major findings
Authorship?
Scenario: Authorship Issues
Project
Post-doc 1 begins project
Makes initial key observations
Follow-up
Post-doc 1 leaves to become faculty
Post-doc 2 spends two years finishing paper
Authorship?
Scenario: Authorship Issues
Paper
Post-doc 1 makes significant contribution
Data included in original submission of paper
Review
Reviewer hates data of Post-doc 1
Results removed from revised paper
Authorship?
Resolving Conflict
Identify Issues
Design Options
Cooperative Response
Manage Emotions
Willingness to Resolve
Negotiate
Mediation
Broaden Perspectives
THE CONFLICT RESOLUTION NETWORKcrnhq.org/
Fraud?
Two different figures
Lab meeting: note wide range of data points
Results convincing
Paper: less convincing points removed from figure
Conclusion not changed
What do you do?
Fraud?
the “Representative Micrograph”
in other words – the best result you got
Fraud? Issues
Cultural relativism
Be prepared to defend your stand in public
When in doubt, consult a colleague
Approaches
Cut and run
Defend the truth
Consequences
Destruction of scientific careers
Maintain your perspective
Science is self correcting
Data Manipulation
Immunoblot analysis
“Photoshop” manipulation
Enhance bands
Edit out smears
Combine lanes from different regions of gel
Combine lanes from different gels
Fraud or part of scientific process?
Rockefeller University Journals
• Routinely check images for manipulation
• All images must be:– Originals– Non-manipulated– Dates of image acquisition must match date of
experiment
Ushma SN. Stop misbehaving!J. Clin. Invest., Jul 2006; 116: 1740 - 1741.
Who Owns the Idea?
Laboratory
Long history of interest in DNA repair
Post-docDiscovers a new repair enzymePublishes seminal article
Post-doc becomes a junior faculty member at another institution
Who owns the project?
Conflict of Interest?
Drug company talks
Financial interest in productdiagnostic testtherapeutic intervention
Want to crush the senior author of the paper
Resolving Conflict
Identify Issues before they arise
Clear understanding of arrangements
Collaborative studies and establishing an independent research program
An ounce of prevention...
Maintain your perspective
Science is a marathon, not a sprint