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
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