etiquette in scientific research - ntu singapore in...2. know your rights & responsibilities...

Etiquette in Scientific

Research

Acknowledgements to David S. Touretzky, CMU

David ButlerSchool of MAE

Nanyang Technological University

Singapore

NRP Training Seminar, 6th April 2016

Avoiding Ethical Dilemmas

1. Know the rules

How are researchers supposed to behave?

Who says so?

2. Know your rights & responsibilities

Co-authorship

Ownership of intellectual property

Conflicts of interest

3. Learn the to recognize the most common ethical mistakes

Misuse of text or ideas

Deceptive reporting of research results

Breach of confidentiality

4. Take steps now to avoid conflicts in your research team

Or resolve them quickly with minimal pain

5. Learn from other’s mistakes

2 http://sorryaboutyourweight.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Dilemma.jpg


1. Know the Rules

NTU Research Integrity Policy & Procedurehttp://www3.ntu.edu.sg/Research2/ResearchIntegrityPolicy.pdf

Any particular school guidelines

Need to ask your NTU supervisor

3

http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/Research2/ResearchIntegrityPolicy.pdf


2. Know Your Rights & Responsibilities

Assuming your NRP work is highly successful and you generate publication(s).

Two forms of credit can be given in a paper

Co-authorship

Acknowledgments

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Co-authorship

General Rule of Thumb

A co-author should have made direct and substantial contributions to the work (not necessarily to the writing.)

Co-authors share responsibility for the scientific integrity of the paper.

Jan Hendrik Schön at Bell Labs (2002)

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Co-authorship

Professor David Baltimore Case @ MIT (1986)

Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine Immunology paper co-authored with

Professor Thereza Imanishi-Kari. Paper reported by her Post-doc to have

fabricated data. NIH investigated along with US Secret

Service Baltimore criticised by NIH for failing to

listen to the challenges from the post-doc

6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DavidBaltimore2008.JPG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DavidBaltimore2008.JPG


Acknowledge People Who…

Contribute a good idea or coin a useful term

Provide pointers to papers for the bibliography

Help with using some specialised equipment

Help with typesetting or illustrations

Provide significant resources, e.g. loan of equipment, tissue samples, etc.

Don forget to acknowledge where the money came from to do the project

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Ask your Project Supervisor

What are the authorship conventions in your field.

What are the authorship conventions in your lab?

Are students allowed to submit papers without your approval?

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3. Learn to recognize the most common ethical

mistakes

Smith

The parrot is a remarkable bird in many respects. In terms of intelligence, humour, and manual dexterity, it is unequalled in the avian kingdom.

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Misappropriation Example

Jones, wrong way:

Parrots are excellent mimics. But the parrot is a remarkable bird in many other respects. In terms of intelligence, humour, and manual dexterity, it is unparalleled in the avian kingdom.

10 http://www.maxisciences.com/parrot/wallpaper


Proper Attribution

Jones, right way:

Parrots are excellent mimics. But in addition, asSmith (2009) observes, “In terms of intelligence,humour, and manual dexterity, [they are]unequalled in the avian kingdom.”

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Citation Etiquette

Cite other people’s work freely and often:

Avoid antagonising your reviewers by failing to acknowledge their contributions

Demonstrate your mastery of the literature.

Make new friends (scholars love to be cited)

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Misappropriation of Ideas

A researcher must not present someone else's ideas as his or her own.

Cite your source!

Even if the originator of the idea doesn't care about credit, it is improper to present their idea as one's own.

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Citing The Source of an Idea

Right way:

Adding carbon nano tubes to the compound allowed for better thermal and mechanical properties.1

_____________1The authors are grateful to Miss K.Y. Lam, a visiting NRP student for suggesting this important step.

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Don’t Work Hard Work Smart

1. Browse the web to find papers or tech reports you like.

2. Download the source files.3. Change the author and title.4. Change all occurrences of

“I”/”we” or “my”/”our” accompanying citations of the true author's work.

5. Resubmit to an obscure conference or journal.

6. Repeat until fame and fortune achieved.

15http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-15ZtNkvnbRI/UFTaoI2z0gI/AAAAAAAABJ4/yCfePu-

UC3w/s1600/Book+of+Bad+Habiits-Cheating.png


Don’t Work Hard Work Smart

This technique was pioneered in the 1980s by C. V. Papadapoulos, University of Patras, Greece.

7 papers published and 8 under submission1

So bad that one professor included in her CV.

“Papers of mine published in a refereed journal under someone else's name.”

1http://infolab.stanford.edu/~shiva/SCAM/end.html

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4. Research Fraud

Painting mice with a magic marker to fake the results of a genetic experiment.

William Summerlin (New York, 1974)

The term “painting the mice” has become a synonym for research fraud!!

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Recent Case

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Most journals only want good results


Varieties of Data Fraud

Trimming: smoothing irregularities to make the data appear extremely accurate and precise.

Cooking: retaining only those results that fit the theory, and discarding others.

Forging: inventing some or all of the research data that are reported; even reporting experiments that were never performed.

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And my reason for doing it was..

“those outlier points must be measurement error”

“they would only confuse the reader”

“everybody cleans up their data before publication”

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Famous Fabricators in history

Mendel “cleaned up” hisgenetics data.

Kepler fabricated data onplanetary observations tosupport his controversial claimthat the planets follow ellipticalorbits.

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Famous Fabricators in history

Pasteur gave a publicdemonstration of what wassupposed to be his new oxygen-attenuation approach to vaccineproduction.

In reality he was using achemically treated vaccine, anidea he stole from HenriToussaint (who suffered anervous breakdown and died.)

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JJHToussaint.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JJHToussaint.png


More Recent Fabricators

Woo Suk Hwang (SouthKorea) in 2005

Faked results to support his claim to have cloned human stem cells

Coerced egg donations from female subordinates

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MMR & Autism

Fraudulent paper published in 1998

Autism is caused by the MMR vaccine

Results: Vaccination rates in the UK dropped sharply

Consequence : Increase in number of deaths

Results were flawed

Author: Andrew Wakefield had a conflict of interest as he was engaged in legal actions against one of the vaccine manufacturers.

The author was ‘struck off’ the medical register

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http://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=mpU1iqzVqy2p5M&tbnid=7loUwXcRaPvkcM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.cmaj.ca/content/182/4/E199/F1.expansion.html&ei=6Cp7UbmdJMTXrQfk74G4Aw&bvm=bv.45645796,d.bmk&psig=AFQjCNHJ4pes5z3Flp4jp3hawZnPIWqfEA&ust=1367112803094741

http://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=mpU1iqzVqy2p5M&tbnid=7loUwXcRaPvkcM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.cmaj.ca/content/182/4/E199/F1.expansion.html&ei=6Cp7UbmdJMTXrQfk74G4Aw&bvm=bv.45645796,d.bmk&psig=AFQjCNHJ4pes5z3Flp4jp3hawZnPIWqfEA&ust=1367112803094741


Haruko Obokato, RIKEN,

Japan

May lose doctorate

Yoshiki Sasai, RIKEN,

Japan

Commits suicide

Latest scandal


5. Failure to Disclose

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is always a good idea.

It's insurance against accusations of misconduct.

Failure to disclose may lead to:

An appearance of impropriety

Jail time (e.g. for violating disclosure requirements in a stock offering.)

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Example of Poor Disclosure

From the back of an MIT Press book jacket:

“This wonderfully lucid bookdescribes what history may judge tobe the second state in the evolutionof <stuff>... It may take generationsto unfold the implications of this newspecies of <artifact> -- but <author>and his colleagues have alreadymade an impressive beginning.”

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The endorser is the author's thesis advisor, and hence one of the

“colleagues” being lauded.

The endorser has a financial interest in the company that is

commercializing the artifact described in the book


Talking to the Public

In general, scientists should not announce discoveries to the public before they have undergone peer review.

Fleishman and Pons “cold fusion” case

Deliberately avoiding peer review for personal gain may constitute professional misconduct.

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Technical issues sometimes have to be simplified when explaining research to the public, but:

1. Don't oversell your results.

2. Don't allow others (e.g. a reporter, or a company you're working with) to hype your

results to make the story more exciting.

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3. Make sure the technical details are available at the time of any public announcements, so the facts can be checked by any scientist who cares to do so.

4. Don't present a shoddy and overhyped undergraduate research project as “The NTU Study” unless the Provost gives permission to attach NTU’s name to it.

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Etiquette on the Scientific Community

Praise good behaviour in public.

Criticize bad behaviour (e.g., failure to cite) in private.

If public criticism is necessary, stick to objective facts. Personal attacks are never appropriate.

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https://triptomoldova.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/photodune-1401684-

etiquette-word-in-letterpress-type-xs.jpg


Dealing with Problems

Get your supervisors' advice.

If you have a problemwith your advisor,discuss it with him or herbefore seeking outsideopinions.

If necessary, speakconfidentially with someother senior scientistwhose opinions yourespect.33


Dealing with Problems (cont.)

Sometimes misunderstandings or unhappy situations can be cleaned up through mediation by a third party.

In the event of serious misconduct, charges may be filed with the Provost's office.

The university has a formal policy for handling misconduct allegations.

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Handling Misconduct

Handle allegations of misconduct with as much confidentiality as possible.

People's careers are at stake.

Remember that there are two sides to every story.

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Conclusion

Ethics education should help you to:

Understand the rules of professional behaviour, and the reasons for them.

Know your rights.

Meet your responsibilities.

Most basic rule of all:

Don't do anything that would embarrass you if people found out about it.

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Thank YouUseful reading

Sigma Xihttp://www.sigmaxi.org/programs/ethics/ethicspublications.shtml

National Institute of Health (US)http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/

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http://www.sigmaxi.org/programs/ethics/ethicspublications.shtml

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/

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