Authorship, plagiarism, preventing and resolving

conflicts: Ethical issues in the research arena

Jay Heinecke9-28-2006

Resolving Conflict

Identify Issues before they arise

Clear understanding of arrangements

Collaborative studies and establishing an independent research program

An ounce of prevention...

Plagiarism?

Rosalind Franklin's 1952 X-ray crystallography picture of B-DNA.

Watson was shown this picture by Wilkins in early 1953.

From the picture it was possible to calculate:     1) the distance between bases (3.4A) 2) the length of the period (34A) 3) the rise of the helix (36 degrees)

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of

DNA: James D. Watson

Why are issues related to authorship, plagiarism and preventing and resolving conflicts

critical to the scientific enterprise?

MythsScience is driven by the quest for knowledge

self-lesscooperativetruth

RealitiesScience is driven by scientists

egocreditcultural relativism

• Papers = Currency of Science– Grants– Promotions– Peer recognition

• Major Credit = First and Last Author– First = Person who did the work– Last = Person who paid for the work

• Biological Science is Becoming Big Science

Scenario: Ethics of Resource Sharing

Transgenic mouse projectGraduate student2 years of workInteresting phenotype

Major competitor requests mouseHow long do you wait?

Until publication of initial paper?2 years?

Scenario: Authorship Issues

Transgenic mouse project

graduate student project

initial description of model published

PI shares mouse with other investigators

PI listed as author on paper

graduate student is not acknowledged

Scenario: Authorship Issues

ProjectComplex translational study

Requires major effort:ClinicianBasic Scientist

Exciting results with major findings

Authorship?

Scenario: Authorship Issues

Project

Post-doc 1 begins project

Makes initial key observations

Follow-up

Post-doc 1 leaves to become faculty

Post-doc 2 spends two years finishing paper

Authorship?

Scenario: Authorship Issues

Paper

Post-doc 1 makes significant contribution

Data included in original submission of paper

Review

Reviewer hates data of Post-doc 1

Results removed from revised paper

Authorship?

Resolving Conflict

Identify Issues

Design Options

Cooperative Response

Manage Emotions

Willingness to Resolve

Negotiate

Mediation

Broaden Perspectives

THE CONFLICT RESOLUTION NETWORKcrnhq.org/

Fraud?

Two different figures

Lab meeting: note wide range of data points

Results convincing

Paper: less convincing points removed from figure

Conclusion not changed

What do you do?

Fraud?

the “Representative Micrograph”

in other words – the best result you got

Fraud? Issues

Cultural relativism

Be prepared to defend your stand in public

When in doubt, consult a colleague

Approaches

Cut and run

Defend the truth

Consequences

Destruction of scientific careers

Maintain your perspective

Science is self correcting

Data Manipulation

Immunoblot analysis

“Photoshop” manipulation

Enhance bands

Edit out smears

Combine lanes from different regions of gel

Combine lanes from different gels

Fraud or part of scientific process?

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., Jul 2006; 116: 1740 - 1741.

Who Owns the Idea?

Laboratory

Long history of interest in DNA repair

Post-docDiscovers a new repair enzymePublishes seminal article

Post-doc becomes a junior faculty member at another institution

Who owns the project?

Conflict of Interest?

Drug company talks

Financial interest in productdiagnostic testtherapeutic intervention

Want to crush the senior author of the paper

Resolving Conflict

Identify Issues before they arise

Clear understanding of arrangements

Collaborative studies and establishing an independent research program

An ounce of prevention...

Maintain your perspective

Science is a marathon, not a sprint