Recognizing, Reporting and Avoiding Scientific Research Misconduct

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Recognizing, Reporting and AvoidingScientific
Research Misconduct
Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career
Development Program University of
Maryland February 21, 2008

• Joe Giffels
• Director
• UMB Research Integrity Office
• Academic Affairs
• jgiff001_at_umaryland.edu

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Dept of Health and Human Services Office of the
SecretaryFindings of Scientific Misconduct
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Conscience is the inner voicewhich warns us
thatsomeone may be looking.
-H L Mencken
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Research Integrity

• Further knowledge
• Benefit society
• Responsible science

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Responsible Research
Research Misconduct
Irresponsible Research
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Responsible Conduct of Research

• Data acquisition, management, sharing, and
  ownership
• Mentor/trainee responsibilities
• Publication practices and responsible authorship
• Peer review
• Collaborative science
• Human subjects
• Research involving animals
• Conflict of interest and commitment
• Research misconduct

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Categories of Scientific Misconduct

• Fabrication making up experiments, data
• Falsification changing results, data without
  statistical justification
• Plagiarism appropriating the words or ideas of
  another and presenting them as ones own

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(No Transcript)
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What Research Misconduct Is Not

• Example 1 Simply illegal, improper or
  unacceptable behavior
• Example 2 Honest error
• Example 3 Disagreement based on honest
  differences of opinion
• Example 4 Simply authorship disputes
• Example 5 Arguably unethical behavior
• Example 6 Sloppy science

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Fuzzy Areas

• Failure to correct the scientific record
• Self-Plagiarism
• Questionable data selection (including image
  manipulation)

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Pretty Pictures
Image Preparation/Manipulation
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UMB Definition(academic misconductmisconduct in
scholarly work)

• Means fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or
  other practices that seriously deviate from those
  that are commonly accepted within the scientific
  community for proposing, conducting, or reporting
  research or other scholarly work also includes
  any form of behavior, including the making of
  allegations that involve frivolous, mischievous
  or malicious misrepresentation, whereby ones
  work or the work of others is seriously
  misrepresented does not include honest error or
  honest differences in interpretations or
  judgments of data.

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Woo Suk Hwang
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Eric Poehlman

• University of Vermont

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Process

• Inquiry
• Investigation
• Consequences

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Whistleblowing
Benefits
Risks

• To ensure that the scientific record is correct
  (science society)
• To comply with regulations (individual)
• To prevent future misconduct (science society)
• To protect ones own reputation (individual) or
  the reputation of another (science society)
• To punish wrongdoer (individual)

• Allegations are not borne out (individual)
• Time, effort and emotion intensive (individual)
• Retaliation by respondent or respondents
  institution (individual)
• Gain reputation as a trouble-maker (individual)

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Truth and Consequences After making the
difficult decision to turn in their advisor
for scientific misconduct, a group of graduate
students is trying to recover from the resulting
damage to their careers
sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/313/5791/1222
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How To Avoid Becoming Involved

• Maintain good records
• Assess the validity of the results
• Collaborate with co-investigators
• Dont take that first step

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Examples(yes, these are true stories)
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A Few Good URLs

• www.ori.dhhs.gov
• www.iom.edu
• www.aamc.org
• http//cf.umaryland.edu/hrpolicies

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Recognizing, Reporting and AvoidingResearch
Misconduct
Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career
Development Program University of
Maryland February 21, 1008

• Joe Giffels
• Director
• UMB Research Integrity Office
• Academic Affairs
• jgiff001_at_umaryland.edu