RESEARCH ETHICS: Record

Keeping and Integrity

Matthew RonningAssociate Vice ChancellorResearch Administration

• Regulatory Compliance Human Subjects Animal Subjects Conflicts of Interest Export Controls

• Scientific Misconduct• And waterskiing to boot!

Introduction

Quiz

• Fabrication• Falsification• Plagiarism• Other non-scholarly behaviors

Fiduciary Egocentricity

• I suppose I’m guilty!

Definitions

• Lack of documentation• Lack of communication• Lack of caring• Pressure to finish• Leadership is missing• It starts in 2nd grade

Where are the problems?

http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/lab_management

Where are the problems?

Source: 2003 Office of Inspector General – National Science Foundation

00.050.1

0.150.2

0.250.3

0.350.4

0.45FalsificationFabricationPlagiarismCOI & xyzFin. FraudProcedCollegue AbuseMerit ReviewOther

• Laboratory Notebooks• Challenges in the digital age• Fraud more prevalent with digital

records• Forensics are available but not

infallible• DO IT!

Two Words on Documentation

Digital RecordsSystemize storage

Naming conventions Back ups - tracked Log / diary

Keep the failures What’s more important, validation

or invalidation when testing a hypothesis?

Arguably, invalidation is more important

• Repeating mistakes is stupid• Failure to document what has

been tried and failed is a tragedy to the body of knowledge.

Pay Attention to YOU

Record – Keep it clean and be religious about it

Review – Remind yourself what you did the last few days.

Instruct – Document instructions given and received. Share docs.

Counsel – Let your subordinates and others know how to behave.

Think! – Stop for a moment and think about where you’ve been and where you are headed

Double Check – Lit search is not a one-stop shopping spree

Heal – Shore up adversarial relationships

Some Real Examples•Who thought of it first? – Plagiarism resulting from a case of “I don’t like you”•Change the numbers, then run the program. – Instructions for an NIH grant application or for an educational exercise?•XXX – 18 and older only