Challenging%20Issues%20in%20Research:%20Authorship,%20Scientific%20Misconduct,%20and%20Conflict%20Resolution

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Challenging Issues in ResearchAuthorship,
Scientific Misconduct, and Conflict Resolution

• John Amory MD, MPH
• Associate Professor of Medicine
• University of Washington
• July 9th, 2008

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Why do issues related to authorship, scientific
misconduct and conflicts arise?

• Ideals
• Science is driven by the quest for knowledge
• Scientists should be selfless and cooperative
• Negative results reflect the truth

• Realities
• -Science is driven by scientists!
• -Ego is prominent and Credit is key to
  advancement
• -Desire to obtain positive results is strong

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Part I Authorship

• Papers are the currency of science. They are key
  to
• Grants
• Promotions
• Peer recognition
• Awards

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Authorship-Continued

• Major Credit goes to First and Last Author
• First Author Person who did the work wrote
  the manuscript
• Last Author Person who paid/supervised and
  often conceived of the work
• Other Authorsmuch less prestigious
• (try to avoid the 2nd author booby prize
• if you deserve to be 1st author!)

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Authorship Issues Scenario 1

• Transgenic mouse project is initiated by trainee
  who publishes initial description of model
• PI (senior author on 1st paper) then shares mouse
  with other investigators and is going to be a
  co-author of their subsequent paper.
• Should the trainee be a co-author as well?
• Yes
• No

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Authorship Issues-Scenario 2

• Project is a complex translational study
  involving the 1st use of a novel technology (e.g.
  proteomics for cancer diagnosis) requiring major
  effort of both a Clinician and a Basic Scientist
• Who should be 1st author?
• Clinician who recruits subjects and obtains
  samples?
• Scientist who performs tests and interprets
  results?

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Authorship Issues Scenario 3

• Fellow 1 begins project and makes initial key
  observations but then leaves to become faculty
  elsewhere, then fellow 2 takes over project and
  spends 18 months completing it.
• Who should be 1st author?
• Fellow 1
• Fellow 2

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Authorship A Cautionary Tale

• Rosalind Franklin's 1952 X-ray crystallography
  picture of B-DNA.
• James Watson and Francis Crick were shown this
  picture by their lab head Maurice Wilkins in
  early 1953, four months before their seminal
  paper in Nature describing the structure of the
  double-helix. Watson, Crick and Wilkins were
  awarded the Nobel Prize for this work in 1963
  (Franklin was dead from Ovarian CA)

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Scientific Misconduct

• Fraud
• Generating made up data
• Manipulating or omitting existing data to improve
  appearance or statistical significance
• Plagiarism
• Wholesale copying from another source
• Transfer of smaller sections from several sources
  without acknowledgement
• False Representation
• Misrepresenting educational history or
  publications on CVs or grant applications
• Undermining the Competition
• Unfavorable/unfair review or delay of another
  groups work

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Scientific Misconduct Scenario 1

• You attend a lab meeting and notice a wide range
  of data points on a graph. Later, when you are
  reviewing the manuscript prior to submission, you
  notice that some of the outlying points have been
  removed from the figure. What do you do?
• Ask the first author for an explanation
• Bring it to the attention of the Sr. Author
• Ask that your name be removed from the
  manuscript

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Scientific Misconduct Scenario 2

• A colleague is performing Immunoblot analysis and
  uses Photoshop to enhance bands, edit out smears
  and combine lanes from different gels. Is this
• A) An acceptable part of the scientific process
• B) Scientific misconduct

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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.,
2006 116 1740.
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Scientific Misconduct Scenario 3

• You have invested two years of work on a
  transgenic mouse project when a major competitor
  requests the mouse. What do you do?
• Send the mouse right away
• Wait until after publication of initial paper
  describing phenotype?
• C) Wait 1 year after publication

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Scientific Misconduct A Cautionary Tale

• Falsifying data is this ultimate sin in research.
  If discovered, it will kill your career in
  science or worse.

Eric Poehlman PhD Professor, U. Vermont 1st
American researcher jailed for fraud (2006)
Character is higher than intellect-Emerson
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Part III Conflict in Research

• Personality clashes between trainee and trainer
  or between trainees do occur
• Usually remediable

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Research Conflict Scenario

• You and another fellow both work with a prominent
  senior investigator who obtains permission to do
  a 1st in human study of a promising new drug.
• You and the other fellow are both eager to
  perform the study and be the 1st author of the
  resulting manuscript. How do you resolve this
  dilemma? Do you
• A) Let your senior investigator decide
• B) Hash it out with the other fellow
• C) Flip a coin

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Research Conflict Scenario 2

• You have a PhD colleague who frequently
  interrupts you in lab meeting, and denigrates you
  as not a scientist, just a medical doctor. Do
  you
• A) Go to the gym
• B) Sneeze on his tissue culture plates
• C) Hire an Assassin
• D) Talk to him about his behavior, then involve
  the senior investigator if necessary

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Part III Resolving Conflict

• Identify Issues Clearly
• Design Options Which Give All Parties Something
  Positive
• Cooperative Response
• Manage EmotionsTemper Tantrums not Useful
• Willingness to Resolve and NegotiateInflexible
  Researchers get isolated
• Broaden PerspectivesScience is a marathon, not
  a sprint

THE CONFLICT RESOLUTION NETWORK (www.crnhq.org/)
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Closing Thoughts

• Scientific Research in the medical context is a
  wonderful and meaningful career
• (mostly!) Intelligent Peers
• Chance to work on important problems
• Chance to be Creative
• Potentially Improve Others Lives

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Final Advice

• ..Dont be tempted by the shiny apple, dont eat
  of its bitter fruit, hunger only for a taste of
  (knowledge), hunger only for a world of truth,
  cause all that youve got is your soul.

Tracy Chapman Crossroads c.1990