CCP 44- Research Ethics Flashcards
What are the tenets of the Nuremberg Code (10)?
What important tenets were added in the Belmont Report (3)?
The head of a research company wants to be placed on every manuscript, regardless of his contribution. This individual approves the final manuscripts. Should he/she be an author?
No! Providing funding for research does not entitle you to authorship
An undergraduate student works on a project with another undergraduate student but graduates before publication. PI publishes the work without their consent or credit. Should he/she have been an author?
In most cases, yes! They contributed significant work to the study and should have been involved in the editing process.
What are some examples of plagiarism according to Indiana University?
You work in a laboratory and create a great figure that is published in a high tier journal. The figure also supports a second publication so you include it in that second manuscript. Is this plagiarism? Is it legal?
This is plagiarism unless you get permission from the journal. Once you submit something and it is published, the journal owns all of your work. You must get permission (which is usually not a problem) before using the figure.
How does the Peer Review process work?
PI receives manuscript for review that gives to a graduate student. The work he gives to the graduate student is similar to what the student will be doing in his postdoctoral fellowship. Is this ethical?
No. The student is effectively being given a heads up on current research which results in an unfair advantage.
How do you mitigate conflicts of interest (7)?
It depends. If he has evidence from the trial that the drug is working well, it is a conflict of interest because he has access to information the public does not. However, studies are published by the government when they are approved so if he buys stock at this time, and does not have any inside information that the drug will be awesome, it is okay.
Yes.
Until this information is public knowledge, it is not allowed.
First off, you could have violated ethics depending on how you found out about this study.
Yes, you can withhold data at any time. Once your patent is set up, you are expected to provide all data.
Research associate was sent to jail. Research leader was not charged (because it wasn’t his fault) but it negatively affected his career.
What are the 3 R’s of animal research?
- Replacement (can you replace animals with something else?)
- Reduction (can you use less animal subjects and still obtain statistically significant results?)
- Refinement (how can you do the experiment in other ways?)
You can withhold analgesics provided that you expected the animal to be in pain. Otherwise you have to kill it. Never give analgesics because it will compromise the study
If the majority of the mice exceed the maximum weight loss, you should end the study.
Other models exist, like ferrets, but they are harder to look after.
The number of mice per group would be estimated before the study begins.
This is an ethical dilemma because you are studying an incredibly vulnerable population that you could be exploiting.
You must insure that the population you are conducting experiments with gets access to the vacine, should the trial be succesful.
An ebola trial would be ethical because ebola is predominantly an issue in Africa so it would directly benefit the participants (unless you were shady and denied access).
It is unethical to run a placebo-controlled trial in the face of an outbreak with 50% lethality.
What was the point of the Delcaration of Helsinki? When was it released?
- Cornerstone of human research ethics
- 1964
What was the point of the Belmont Report? When was it released?
- human subjects and medical research
- informed consent (respect for persons), assessing risks and benefits (beneficience), and subject selection (justice)
- 1979
Who should receive authorship?
Each person should have significant impact in planning the work, the research itself, and writing the manuscript or poster
Individuals that:
- contributed substantially to the work
- wrote or revised the paper
- approved the final version of the work
What is plagiarism?
How bad is it?
How do you avoid plagiarism?
- Plagiarism is “the act of passing off somebody else’s ideas, thoughts, pictures, theories, words, or stories as your own”
- Not only is it bad, it’s illegal because it’s considered stealing.
- Any material from a source must be properly cited
Who should not be involved in the peer review process?
- collaborative researchs (could result in quid pro quos)
- friends
- direct competitors (unfair knowlege of upcoming research)
What is the issue with “least publishable unit” and what does it mean?
The least publishable unit is the minimum amount of information required to publish something. Some researchers will exploit this to gain high quantities of publications (to make their resume look impressive) without really accomplishing anything
What issues are considered when publishing research?
- exploiting least publishable unit
- repeating what has already been done/failing to add to the body of knowledge
- unsound research methods or design
- including (or not including) negative data
What is negative data? Is it important?
Negative data is data that shows a rejection of the study’s goals. This can be important (and there are journals dedicated to negative data) because it prevents other researchers from performing the same study
