Research ethics

Annika SöderholmKjell Jorner

Rikard Emanuelsson

Outline

• Objective research• Open access publishing• Authorship

Objective research?

• What does VR say?– Tell the truth – No manipulations – CUDOS (Disinterestedness and Organized

Skepticism)• Does it work?

– How do you define manipulation/truth– No one is objective, your prejudice/expectations

will always affect how you see things

Is it a problem?

• Is it always good to be objective? – Can be good to have strong ideas and fight for

them.– May create good debates.– Forces different perspectives and makes you not

always choosing the most obvious truth.

Example 1• My research project concerns different mutated versions of

an enzyme. The mutants have different catalytic activities: A or B

• My theory was that the A-mutants have more flexible structures than the B-mutants.

• An analysis determining the thermostability of my enzymes gave results indicating that, indeed, the A-mutants are more flexible than the B-mutants, confirming my hypothesis.

• A second and a third analysis did unfortunately not show this relationship.

Example 2

• In X-ray crystallography we determine protein-structures based on electron density maps. We place molecules in to blobs.

• What molecule we “see” might depend a lot on what molecule we wish to see.

Open access publishing

What is it?

• Everyone has access to your publication on the internet

• Different levels of access:– Level A: Read article– Level B: Have access to and re-use the research

material (CC-BY)• You retain the rights over your own material

Why is it important?

• Gives more researchers access to your scientific work– More equal between countries– More citations…

• Gives access to the public who funds the research

• Researchers do the peer review for free, why should the publisher profit?

Research funders that require open access

Funder Provides funding for open access

Vetenskapsrådet Not clear

Knut och Alice Wallenbergs stiftelse Include in grant application

European Research Council Include in grant application

How can you do it?

1. Publish in an open access journal2. Publish in a normal journal and at

the same time deposit a copy of the manuscript in an open archive on the internet (DiVA for UU, PubMed Central, arXiv.org)

3. Publish in a normal journal and pay for open access for that particular article.

Potential problems?

• Individual scientist might lose out on high-impact publication

• Predatory publishers– Make money out of publication fees– No serious editorship

• Lack of peer-review– Mainly for bad journals

• No hierarchy of journals yet– Where can I find the important results?

More information

• Open Access Opportunities and Challenges – A Handbook from the European Commission

• Kungliga Biblioteket’s portal on Open Access (http://www.kb.se/openaccess/)

• VR on Open Access (https://www.vr.se/omvetenskapsradet/strategierochriktlinjer/fritillganglighetopenaccess.4.1d4cbbbb11a00d342b0800021800.html)

• Open Access Explained! (YouTube Video)

AuthorshipAuthor – responsible!

“Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.”

The author list - examples

The author list - examples

Lander, E.S.a  , Linton, L.M.a, Birren, B.a, Nusbaum, C.a, Zody, M.C.a, Baldwin, J.a, Devon, K.a, Dewar, K.a, Doyle, M.a, Fitzhugh, W.a, Funke, R.a, Gage, D.a, Harris, K.a, Heaford, A.a, Howland, J.a, Kann, L.a, Lehoczky, J.a, Levine, R.a, McEwan, P.a, McKernan, K.a, Meldrim, J.a, Mesirov, J.P.a, Miranda, C.a, Morris, W.a, Naylor, J.a, Raymond, C.a, Rosetti, M.a, Santos, R.a, Sheridan, A.a, Sougnez, C.a, Stange-Thomann, N.a, Stojanovic, N.a, Subramanian, A.a, Wyman, D.a, Rogers, J.b, Sulston, J.b  , Ainscough, R.b, Beck, S.b, Bentley, D.b, Burton, J.b, Clee, C.b, Carter, N.b, Coulson, A.b, Deadman, R.b, Deloukas, P.b, Dunham, A.b, Dunham, I.b, Durbin, R.b, French, L.b, Grafham, D.b, Gregory, S.b, Hubbard, T.b, Humphray, S.b, Hunt, A.b, Jones, M.b, Lloyd, C.b, McMurray, A.b, Matthews, L.b, Mercer, S.b, Milne, S.b, Mullikin, J.C.b, Mungall, A.b, Plumb, R.b, Ross, M.b, Shownkeen, R.b, Sims, S.b, Waterston, R.H.c  , Wilson, R.K.c, Hillier, L.W.c, McPherson, J.D.c, Marra, M.A.c, Mardis, E.R.c, Fulton, L.A.c, Chinwalla, A.T.c, Pepin, K.H.c, Gish, W.R.c, Chissoe, S.L.c, Wendl, M.C.c, Delehaunty, K.D.c, Miner, T.L.c, Delehaunty, A.c, Kramer, J.B.c, Cook, L.L.c, Fulton, R.S.c, Johnson, D.L.c, Minx, P.J.c, Clifton, S.W.c, Hawkins, T.d, Branscomb, E.d, Predki, P.d, Richardson, P.d, Wenning, S.d, Slezak, T.d, Doggett, N.d, Cheng, J.-F.d, Olsen, A.d, Lucas, S.d, Elkin, C.d, Uberbacher, E.d, Frazier, M.d, Gibbs, R.A.e, Muzny, D.M.e, Scherer, S.E.e, Bouck, J.B.e, Sodergren, E.J.e, Worley, K.C.e, Rives, C.M.e, Gorrell, J.H.e, Metzker, M.L.e, Naylor, S.L.f, Kucherlapati, R.S.g, Nelson, D.L.h, Weinstock, G.M.h, Sakaki, Y.i, Fujiyama, A.i, Hattori, M.i, Yada, T.i, Toyoda, A.i, Itoh, T.i, Kawagoe, C.i, Watanabe, H.i, Totoki, Y.i, Taylor, T.i, Weissenbach, J.j, Heilig, R.j, Saurin, W.j, Artiguenave, F.j, Brottier, P.j, Bruls, T.j, Pelletier, E.j, Robert, C.j, Wincker, P.j, Rosenthal, A.l, Platzer, M.l, Nyakatura, G.l, Taudien, S.l, Rump, A.l, Smith, D.R.k, Doucette-Stamm, L.k, Rubenfield, M.k, Weinstock, K.k, Hong, M.L.k, Dubois, J.k, Yang, H.m, Yu, J.m, Wang, J.m, Huang, G.n, Gu, J.o, Hood, L.p, Rowen, L.p, Madan, A.p, Qin, S.p, Davis, R.W.q, Federspiel, N.A.q, Abola, A.P.q, Proctor, M.J.q, Roe, B.A.v, Chen, F.v, Pan, H.v, Ramser, J.w, Lehrach, H.w, Reinhardt, R.w, McCombie, W.R.x, De La Bastide, M.x, Dedhia, N.x, Blöcker, H.y, Hornischer, K.y, Nordsiek, G.y, Agarwala, R.z, Aravind, L.z, Bailey, J.A.aa, Bateman, A.b, Batzoglou, S.a, Birney, E.ab, Bork, P.acad, Brown, D.G.a, Burge, C.B.ae, Cerutti, L.abax, Chen, H.-C.z, Church, D.z, Clamp, M.b, Copley, R.R.ad, Doerks, T.acad, Eddy, S.R.af, Eichler, E.E.aa, Furey, T.S.ag, Galagan, J.a, Gilbert, J.G.R.b, Harmon, C.ah, Hayashizaki, Y.ai, Haussler, D.aj, Hermjakob, H.ab, Hokamp, K.ak, Jang, W.z, Johnson, L.S.af, Jones, T.A.af, Kasif, S.al, Kaspryzk, A.ab, Kennedy, S.am, Kent, W.J.an, Kitts, P.z, Koonin, E.V.z, Korf, I.c, Kulp, D.ah, Lancet, D.ao, Lowe, T.M.ap, McLysaght, A.ak, Mikkelsen, T.al, Moran, J.V.aq, Mulder, N.ab, Pollara, V.J.a, Ponting, C.P.ar, Schuler, G.z, Schultz, J.ad, Slater, G.ab, Smit, A.F.A.as, Stupka, E.ab, Szustakowki, J.al, Thierry-Mieg, D.z, Thierry-Mieg, J.z, Wagner, L.z, Wallis, J.c, Wheeler, R.ah, Williams, A.ah, Wolf, Y.I.z, Wolfe, K.H.ak, Yang, S.-P.c, Yeh, R.-F.ae, Collins, F.at  , Guyer, M.S.at, Peterson, J.at, Felsenfeld, A.at, Wetterstrand, K.A.at, Myers, R.M.r, Schmutz, J.r, Dickson, M.r, Grimwood, J.r, Cox, D.R.r, Olson, M.V.s, Kaul, R.s, Raymond, C.s, Shimizu, N.t, Kawasaki, K.t, Minoshima, S.t, Evans, G.A.uaw, Athanasiou, M.u, Schultz, R.u, Patrinos, A.au, Morgan, M.J.av  

Why does it matter?

• Proper credit• Academic career – academic meriting (VERY

important in some countries/research fields)• Fairness?

Example – the pre-studies

• A number of master students works on a project under supervision of a PhD student.

• They discover what NOT works.

• From this information a new study is designed as a master thesis project. It leads to a publication after a lot of work is put in. Only the PhD student and the final master student (and the professor) is listed as authors.

Why not put them in the Acknowledgments?

• According to conventions • Who cares about

acknowledgments?• Not listed as author = not

contributed?

Example -The Boss scientist

Brings in the big money. Many responsibilities = No time.

Employs scientists which are semi-independent, but the boss will always be a co-author on the paper (often the last author).How does the “junior” scientist get proper credit?

Finance• Paying is enough?

• Not? But can the boss scientist then keep his large group?

• What about all the expensive equipment that were used?

Example – becoming an authorA famous chemist is referee on a paper, suggest many revision for it to be publishable.

Authors are “forced” to make these changes if they want their paper in that journal.

Editor write to authors and ask them,they agree.

Referee gets to see the paper again and then contacts the Editor and asks to be put on the paper as the Referee contributed so much to the paper.

Thank you for your attention!