WHAT ARE SOME OF THE KEY ISSUES IN MISCONDUCTINTEGRITY WHAT IS MISCONDUCT

1
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE KEY ISSUES IN
MISCONDUCT/INTEGRITY?WHAT IS MISCONDUCT

• What is the definition of research misconduct?
• How often does it occur?
• Why would a scientist commit misconduct?
• What is the impact of an incident of misconduct?
• Are there other types of misconduct?
• Can it be prevented?
• Can it be reduced?

2
RESPONSE TO MISCONDUCT

• How should an institutional official respond to
  an allegation of misconduct?
• How is an investigation conducted?
• How does the accused interact with the
  institution?
• How does the whistleblower interact with the
  institution?
• What are some important principles to follow when
  investigating an allegation? Why?
• What is the role of the government agency that
  funds the research?

3
QUESTIONABLE RESEARCH PRACTICES

• What other kinds of scientific practices are
  troublesome?
• How should they be handled?
• What is the difference between plagiarism and an
  authorship dispute?
• What institutional responsibilities are there?
• What individual responsibilities are involved?
• What does the Institute of Medicine have to say
  about this?

4
INSTITUTIONAL/INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• What sorts of institutional structures should be
  in place?
• What are the basic responsibilities of the
  institution?
• What are the responsibilities of individual
  scientists?
• Does the lab chief/principal investigator have
  additional responsibilities?

5
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

• Why should an institution have an educational
  program?
• What are key elements of an education program?
  Is there a need for education in the responsible
  conduct of research (RCR)?
• What are some benefits of RCR education?
• What challenges are there in creating an
  effective RCR education program?

6
Financial Conflicts of Interest and Other
Conflicts

• Does your institution have specific policies and
  procedures for managing conflicts of interest in
  research?
• Do you have standard operating procedures?
• Have you developed best practices based on actual
  experience with COI cases?

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Conflicts of Interest (cont)

• Do you provide training to research
  administrators and scientists on the principles
  underlying the need for managing conflicts of
  interest?
• Do you discuss case studies?
• Have you reviewed your institutional policies
  recently to determine how well they are working
  and whether changes are needed?

8
Conflicts of Interest (cont)

• What are your experiences in prohibiting
  conflicts in research?
• Do you have cases where the investigator has been
  totally excluded from the study due to conflicts?
  
• When managing conflicts and allowing the
  investigator to continue with the research, what
  have you found that works and what does not work?

9
Conflicts of Interest (cont)

• Have you had experiences with non-financial
  conflicts of interest that appeared to undermine
  the objectivity of the research?
• If so, what types of conflicts were involved?
• How did you resolve them?

10
INSTITUTIONAL COMPLIANCE

• What types of compliance issues face the research
  institution?
• How should an institution respond to compliance
  issues?
• Why is compliance important?

11
Martinson Study

• I want to focus on the data issues
• Item 1 falsifying or cooking data less that 1
  report doing so. Does that sound about right? Do
  you think its higher?
• Item 7 failing to present data that contradicts
  ones own research what do you think that refers
  to? How serious is it?

12
Martinson (cont)

• Overlooking others use of flawed data or
  questionable interpretation of data (12)
• How serious is that?
• What if its a study on human subjects?
• What if its a clinical trial?
• If the flawed data results in a grant or
  publication, is the investigator getting a free
  pass? Is a more qualified investigator being
  unfairly denied?

13
Martinson (cont)

• Item 10 changing methodology or results of the
  study in response to a funding source15
• Is it always bad? When can it be good?
• Publishing data in multiple publications 5
• How serious is it? what are the problems with
  multiple publications? What about clinical
  research?

14
Martinson (cont)

• Dropping observations or data points based on a
  gut feeling 15
• Is there any justification for this?
• Is it wishful thinking due to pressure to publish
  or get funded?
• How common is it in your institution?
• Inadequate recordkeeping 27

15
Martinson (cont)

• How serious are the consequences in the lab due
  to inadequate recordkeeping?
• Does it affect the interpretation of data
• Does it cause projects to be dropped?
• Does it make it more difficult to confirm
  important studies?
• What can be done about it?
• How important is the data anyway?