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Form and Style
Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your
forehead. --- Gene Fowler
Your papers are to adhere to the form and stylerequired for the Journal of Chemistry, requirementsthat are shared by many journals in the chemicalsciences.
To make a paper readable Print or type using a 12 point standard font, such as
Times, Geneva, Bookman, Helvetica, etc.
Text should be double spaced on 8 1/2" x 11" paper
with 1 inch margins, single sided Number pages consecutively
Start each new section on a new page
Adhere to recommended page limits
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Mistakes to avoid
Placing a heading at the bottom of a page with
the following text on the next page (insert a
page break!)
Dividing a table or figure - confine eachfigure/table to a single page
Submitting a paper with pages out of order
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In all sections of your paper
Use normal prose including articles ("a","the," etc.)
Stay focused on the research topic of thepaper
Use paragraphs to separate each importantpoint (except for the abstract)
Indent the first line of each paragraph
Present your points in logical order Use present tense to report well accepted
facts - for example, 'the grass is green'
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Title Page
Include the name(s) and address(es) of allauthors, and date submitted. "Biology lab #1"
would not be an informative title, for example.
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Abstract
The summary should be two hundred wordsor less.
Main Goal
An abstract is a concise single paragraphsummary of completed work or work in
progress. In a minute or less a reader can
learn the rationale behind the study, general
approach to the problem, pertinent results,and important conclusions or new questions.
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Writing an abstract
Write your summary after the rest of thepaper is completed. After all, how can you
summarize something that is not yet written?
Economy of words is important throughoutany paper, but especially in an abstract.
Use complete sentences and do not sacrifice
readability for brevity.
Keep it concise by wording sentences so that
they serve more than one purpose.
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For example, "In order to learn the role of
protein synthesis in early development of thesea urchin, newly fertilized embryos were
pulse-labeled with tritiated leucine, to provide
a time course of changes in synthetic rate, as
measured by total counts per minute (cpm)."
This sentence provides the overall question,
methods, and type of analysis, all in one
sentence. The writer can now go directly tosummarizing the results.
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Style
Single paragraph, and concise
As a summary of work done, it is always writtenin past tense
An abstract should stand on its own, and notrefer to any other part of the paper such as a
figure or table
Focus on summarizing results - limit backgroundinformation to a sentence or two, if absolutelynecessary
What you report in an abstract must beconsistent with what you reported in the paper
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Corrrect spelling, clarity of sentences and
phrases, and proper reporting of quantities(proper units, significant figures) are just as
important in an abstract as they are anywhere
else
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Introduction
should not exceed two pages (double spaced,typed).
The purpose of an introduction is to acquaint
the reader with the rationale behind the work,with the intention of defending it. It places
your work in a theoretical context, and
enables the reader to understand and
appreciate your objectives
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Writing the Introduction
Describe the importance (significance) of the study -
why was this worth doing in the first place? Provide a
broad context.
Defend the model - why did you use thi
sparticularorganism orsystem?What are its advantages? You
might comment on itssuitability from a theoretical
point of view as well as indicate practical reasons for
using it.
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Provide a rationale. State your specific
hypothesis(es) or objective(s), and describethe reasoning that led you to select them.
Very briefly describe the experimental design
and how it accomplished the stated
objectives.
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Materials andMethods
There is no specific page limit, but a keyconcept is to keep this section as concise as
you possibly can. People will want to read this
material selectively. The reader may only be
interested in one formula or part of a
procedure. Materials and methods may be
reported under separate subheadings within
this section or can be incorporated together.
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It is not to be a step by step description of
everything you did, nor is a methods section aset of instructions. In particular, it is not
supposed to tell a story. By the way, your
notebook should contain all of the
information that you need for this section.
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Writing a materials and methods section
Materials:
Describe materials separately only if the studyis so complicated that it saves space this way.
Include specialized chemicals, biological
materials, and any equipment or supplies thatare not commonly found in laboratories.
Do not include commonly found supplies suchas test tubes, pipet tips, beakers, etc., orstandard lab equipment such as centrifuges,spectrophotometers, pipettors, etc.
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If use of a specific type of equipment, a specific
enzyme, or a culture from a particular supplier iscritical to the success of the experiment, then itand the source should be singled out, otherwiseno.
Materials may be reported in a separateparagraph or else they may be identified along
with your procedures.
In biosciences we frequently work with solutions
- refer to them by name and describe completely,including concentrations of all reagents, and pHof aqueous solutions, solvent if non-aqueous.
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Methods:
Report the methodology (not details of eachprocedure that employed the samemethodology)
Describe the methodology completely, includingsuch specifics as temperatures, incubation times,
etc. To be concise, present methods under headings
devoted to specific procedures or groups ofprocedures
Generalize - report how procedures were done,not how they were specifically performed on aparticular day.
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For example, report "samples were diluted to
a final concentration of 2 mg/ml protein;"don't report that "135 microliters of sampleone was diluted with 330 microliters of bufferto make the protein concentration 2 mg/ml."
Always think about what would be relevant toan investigator at another institution, workingon his/her own project.
If well documented procedures were used,
report the procedure by name, perhaps withreference, and that's all.
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For example, the Bradford assay is well
known. You need not report the procedure infull - just that you used a Bradford assay to
estimate protein concentration, and identify
what you used as a standard. The same is true
for the SDS-PAGE method, and many other
well known procedures in biology and
biochemistry.
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Style:
It is awkward or impossible to use active voicewhen documenting methods without using first
person, which would focus the reader's
attention on the investigator rather than thework. Therefore when writing up the methods
most authors use third person passive voice.
Use normal prose in this and in every other
section of the paper avoid informal lists, and
use complete sentences.
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What to avoid
Materials and methods are not a set ofinstructions.
Omit all explanatory information and
background - save it for the discussion. Omit information that is irrelevant to a third
party, such as what color ice bucket you used,
or which individual logged in the data.
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Results
The page length of this section is set by theamount and types of data to be reported.
Continue to be concise, using figures and tables,
if appropriate, to present results most effectively.
See recommendations for content, below. General intent
The purpose of a results section is to present and
illustrate your findings. Make this section acompletely objective report of the results, and
save all interpretation for the discussion.
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Writing a results section
IM
PORTANT: You must clearly distinguish materialthat would normally be included in a researcharticle from any raw data or other appendixmaterial that would not be published. In fact,such material should not be submitted at allunless requested by the instructor.
Content
Summarize your findings in text and illustrate
them, if appropriate, with figures and tables. In text, describe each of your results, pointing the
reader to observations that are most relevant.
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Provide a context, such as by describing the
question that was addressed by making aparticular observation.
Describe results of control experiments and
include observations that are not presented in
a formal figure or table, if appropriate.
Analyze your data, then prepare the analyzed
(converted) data in the form of a figure
(graph), table, or in text form.
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What to avoid
Do not discuss or interpret your results, reportbackground information, or attempt to explain
anything.
Never include raw data or intermediate
calculations in a research paper.
Do not present the same data more than once.
Text should complement any figures or tables,
not repeat the same information. Please do not confuse figures with tables - there
is a difference.
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Style
As
always
, us
e pas
t tens
e when you refer to yourresults, and put everything in a logical order.
In text, refer to each figure as "figure 1," "figure2," etc. ; number your tables as well (see thereference text for details)
Place figures and tables, properly numbered, inorder at the end of the report (clearly distinguishthem from any other material such as raw data,standard curves, etc.)
If you prefer, you may place your figures andtables appropriately within the text of your resultssection.
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Figures and tables
Either place figures and tables within the text of the
result, or include them in the back of the report(following Literature Cited) - do one or the other
If you place figures and tables at the end of the report,make sure they are clearly distinguished from anyattached appendix materials, such as raw data
Regardless of placement, each figure must benumbered consecutively and complete with caption(caption goes under the figure)
Regardless of placement, each table must be titled,
numbered consecutively and complete with heading(title with description goes above the table)
Each figure and table must be sufficiently completethat it could stand on its own, separate from text
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Discussion
Journal guidelines vary. Space is so valuable inthe Journal of Biological Chemistry, that
authors are asked to restrict discussions to
four pages or less, double spaced, typed. That
works out to one printed page. While you are
learning to write effectively, the limit will be
extended to five typed pages. If you practice
economy of words, that should be plenty ofspace within which to say all that you need to
say.
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General intent
The objective here is to provide an interpretationof your results and support for all of yourconclusions, using evidence from yourexperiment and generally accepted knowledge, ifappropriate. The significance of findings should
be clearly described.Writing a discussion
Interpret your data in the discussion inappropriate depth. This means that when you
explain a phenomenon you must describemechanisms that may account for theobservation
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If your results differ from your expectations,
explain why that may have happened If your results agree, then describe the theory
that the evidence supported. It is neverappropriate to simply state that the data
agreed with expectations, and let it drop atthat.
Decide if each hypothesis is supported,
rejected, or if you cannot make a decision withconfidence. Do not simply dismiss a study orpart of a study as "inconclusive."
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Research papers are not accepted if the work
is incomplete. Draw what conclusions you canbased upon the results that you have, and
treat the study as a finished work
You may suggest future directions, such as
how the experiment might be modified to
accomplish another objective.
Explain all of your observations as much as
possible,focusing on mechanisms.
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Decide if the experimental design adequatelyaddressed the hypothesis, and whether or not itwas properly controlled.
Try to offer alternative explanations if reasonablealternatives exist.
One experiment will not answer an overallquestion, so keeping the big picture in mind,where do you go next? The best studies open upnew avenues of research. What questions
remain? Recommendations for specific papers will provide
additional suggestions.
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Style:
When you refer to information, distinguish data generated by your
own studies from published information or from informationobtained from other students (verb tense is an important tool foraccomplishing that purpose).
Refer to work done by specific individuals (including yourself) inpast tense.
Refer to generally accepted facts and principles in present tense.
For example, "Doofus, in a 1989 survey,foundthat anemia in bassethounds was correlatedwith advanced age. Anemia is a condition inwhich there is insufficient hemoglobin in the blood."
The biggest mistake that students make in discussions is to presenta superficial interpretation that more or less re-states the results. Itis necessary to suggest whyresults came out as they did, focusing
on the mechanisms behind the observations
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Anemia is a condition in which there is
insufficient hemoglobin in the blood." The biggest mistake that students make in
discussions is to present a superficial
interpretation that more or less re-states the
results. It is necessary to suggest whyresults
came out as they did, focusing on the
mechanisms behind the observations
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Literature Cited
List all literature cited in your paper, in
alphabetical order, by first author. In a proper
research paper, only primary literature is used
(original research articles authored by theoriginal investigators). Be cautious about using
web sites as references - anyone can put just
about anything on a web site, and you have no
sure way of knowing if it is truth or fiction.
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If you are citing an on line journal, use the
journal citation (name, volume, year, pagenumbers). Some of your papers may not
require references, and if that is the case
simply state that "no references were
consulted."
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What is Ethics? Why is it important?
What comes out of your mind when we say ethics?
Ethics
rules for distinguishing between right and wrong
e.g. Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you")Hippocratic Oath ("First of all, do no harm"), a
Ten Commandments ("Thou Shalt not kill..."), or a
wise aphorisms like the sayings of Confucius.
most common way of defining "ethics": norms forconduct that distinguish between acceptable and
unacceptable behavior.
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Where do we learn or acquire this ethical norms?
home, at school, in church, or in other socialsettings
acquire our sense of right and wrong duringchildhood, moral development occurs throughoutlife and human beings pass through differentstages of growth as they mature.
Ethical norms are so ubiquitous that one mightbe tempted to regard them as simple
commonsense. On the other hand, if morality were nothing more
than commonsense,
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then why are there so many ethical disputes
and issues in our society? One plausible explanation of these
disagreements is that all people recognize
some common ethical norms but different
individuals interpret, apply, and balance these
norms in different ways in light of their own
values and life experiences.
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Most societies also have legal rules that
govern behavior, but ethical norms tend to bebroader and more informal than laws.
Although most societies use laws to enforce
widely accepted moral standards and ethical
and legal rules use similar concepts, it is
important to remember that ethics and law
are not the same. An action may be legal but
unethical or illegal but ethical.
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We can also use ethical concepts and
principles to criticize, evaluate, propose, orinterpret laws. Indeed, in the last century,
many social reformers urged citizens to
disobey laws in order to protest what they
regarded as immoral or unjust laws. Peaceful
civil disobedience is an ethical way of
expressing political viewpoints.
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Others defines 'ethics' focuses on the
disciplines that study standards of conduct,such as philosophy, theology, law, psychology,
or sociology. For example, a "medical ethicist"
is someone who studies ethical standards in
medicine. One may also define ethics as a
method, procedure, or perspective for
deciding how to act and for analyzing complex
problems and issues.
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For instance, in considering a complex issue
like global warming, one may take aneconomic, ecological, political, or ethical
perspective on the problem. While an
economist might examine the cost and
benefits of various policies related to global
warming, an environmental ethicist could
examine the ethical values and principles at
stake.
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Many different disciplines, institutions, and
professions have norms for behavior that suittheir particular aims and goals. These norms
also help members of the discipline to
coordinate their actions or activities and toestablish the public's trust of the discipline.
For instance, ethical norms govern conduct in
medicine, law, engineering, and business.
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Ethical norms also serve the aims or goals of
research and apply to people who conductscientific research or other scholarly or
creative activities. There is even a specialized
discipline, research ethics, which studies thesenorms.
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Importance of Ethics in Research
First, norms promote the aims ofresearch,
such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of
error. For example, prohibitions against
fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresentingresearch data promote the truth and avoid
error.
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Second, since research often involves a great
deal of cooperation and coordination amongmany different people in different disciplines
and institutions, ethical standards promote
the values that ar
e essential to collabor
ativework, such as trust, accountability, mutual
respect, and fairness.
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Most researchers want to receive credit for
their contributions and do not want to havetheir ideas stolen or disclosed prematurely.
Third, many of the ethical norms help to
ensure that researchers can be held
accountable to the public.
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For example, many ethical norms in research,
such as guidelines for authorship, copyrightand patenting policies, data sharing policies,
and confidentiality rules in peer review, are
designed to protect intellectual property
interests while encouraging collaboration.
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Third, many of the ethical norms help to ensure that
researcher
scan
be held accountable to the public.
For instance, federal policies on research
misconduct, conflicts of interest, the human subjects
protections, and animal care and use are necessary in
order to make sure that researchers who are fundedby public money can be held accountable to the
public.
Fourth, ethical norms in research also help to build
public support for research. People more likely tofund research project if they can trust the quality and
integrity of research.
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Finally, many of the norms of research
promote a variety of other important moraland social values, such as social responsibility,
human rights, animal welfare, compliance
with the law, and health and safety. Ethical
lapses in research can significantly harmhuman and animal subjects, students, and the
public
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For example, a researcher who fabricates data
in a clinical trial may harm or even killpatients, and a researcher who fails to abide
by regulations and guidelines relating to
radiation or biological safety may jeopardize
his health and safety or the health and safetyof staff and students.
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Codes and Policies forResearch Ethics
Given the importance of ethics for theconduct of research, it should come as no
surprise that many different professional
associations, government agencies, and
universities have adopted specific codes,rules, and policies relating to research ethics.
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Many government agencies, such as the
NationalInstitutes of Health (N
IH), theNational Science Foundation (NSF), the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and
the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) haveethics rules for funded researchers.
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Other influential research ethics policies
include the Uniform Requirements forManuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals
(International Committee ofMedical Journal
Editors), the Chemist's Code of Conduct
(American Chemical Society), Code of Ethics(American Society for Clinical Laboratory
Science)
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Ethical Principles of Psychologists (American
Psychological Association), Statements onEthics and Professional Responsibility
(American Anthropological Association),
Statement on Professional Ethics (American
Association of University Professors), the
Nuremberg Code and the Declaration of
Helsinki (World Medical Association).
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The following is a rough and general summary ofsome ethicalprincipals that various codes address*:
Honesty
Strive for honesty in all scientific communications. Honestly reportdata, results, methods and procedures, and publication status. Do notfabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data. Do not deceive colleagues,granting agencies, or the public.
Objectivity
Strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, datainterpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, grant writing,expert testimony, and other aspects of research where objectivity isexpected or required. Avoid or minimize bias orself-deception.
Disclo
se per
sonal or financial intere
sts
that may affect research.
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Integrity
Keep your promises and agreements; act with sincerity; strive forconsistency of thought and action.
Carefulness
Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and criticallyexamine your own work and the work of your peers. Keep goodrecords of research activities, such as data collection, researchdesign, and correspondence with agencies or journals.
Openness
Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to criticismand new ideas.
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Responsible Mentoring
Help to educate, mentor, and advise students. Promote theirwelfare and allow them to make their own decisions.
Respect for colleagues
Respect your colleague
sand treat them fairly.
Social Responsibility
Strive to promote social good and prevent or mitigate social
harms through research, public education, and advocacy.
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Non-Discrimination
Avoid discrimination against colleagues or students on the
basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or other factors that are notrelated to their scientific competence and integrity.
Competence
Maintain and improve your own professional competence
and expertise through lifelong education and learning; takesteps to promote competence in science as a whole.
Legality
Know and obey relevant laws and institutional and
governmental policies.
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Animal Care
Show proper respect and care for animals whenusing them in research. Do not conductunnecessary or poorly designed animalexperiments.
Human Subjects Protection When conducting research on human subjects,
minimize harms and risks and maximize benefits;respect human dignity, privacy, and autonomy;
take special precautions with vulnerablepopulations; and strive to distribute the benefitsand burdens of research fairly.
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Ethical Decision Making in Research
Although codes, policies, and principals are very
important and useful, like any set of rules, they
do not cover every situation, they often conflict,
and they require considerable interpretation. It is
therefore important for researchers to learn howto interpret, assess, and apply various research
rules and how to make decisions and to act in
various situations. The vast majority of decisions
involve the straightforward application of ethicalrules. For example, consider the following case,
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Case 1:
The research protocol for a study of a drug on
hypertension requires the administration of thedrug at different doses to 50 laboratory mice,with chemical and behavioral tests to determinetoxic effects. Tom has almost finished theexperiment for Dr. Q. He has only 5 mice left totest. However, he really wants to finish his workin time to go to Florida on spring break with hisfriends, who are leaving tonight. He has injectedthe drug in all 50 mice but has not completed all
of the tests. He therefore decides to extrapolatefrom the 45 completed results to produce the 5additional results.
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Many different research ethics policies would hold thatTom has acted unethically by fabricating data. If thisstudy were sponsored by a federal agency, such as theNIH, his actions would constitute a form ofresearchmisconduct, which the government defines as"fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism" (or FFP).Actions that nearly all researchers classify as unethicalare viewed as misconduct. It is important to remember,however, that misconduct occurs only whenresearchers intend to deceive: honest errors related tosloppiness, poor record keeping, miscalculations, bias,self-deception, and even negligence do not constitutemisconduct. Also, reasonable disagreements aboutresearch methods, procedures, and interpretations donot constitute research misconduct. Consider thefollowing case:
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Case 2:
Dr. T has just discovered a mathematical error in a paper
that has been accepted for publication in a journal. Theerror does not affect the overall results of his research, butit is potentially misleading. The journal has just gone topress, so it is too late to catch the error before it appears inprint. In order to avoid embarrassment, Dr. T decides toignore the error.
Dr. T's error is not misconduct nor is his decision to take noaction to correct the error. Most researchers, as well asmany different policies and codes, including ECU's policies,would say that Dr. T should tell the journal about the errorand consider publishing a correction or errata. Failing to
publish a correction would be unethical because it wouldviolate norms relating to honesty and objectivity inresearch.
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There are many other activities that the government does not define as"misconduct" but which are still regarded by most researchers asunethical. These are called "other deviations" from acceptable researchpractices and include:
Publishing the same paper in two different journals without telling theeditors
Submitting the same paper to different journals without telling the editors
Not informing a collaborator of your intent to file a patent in order tomake sure that you are the sole inventor
Including a colleague as an author on a paper in return for a favor eventhough the colleague did not make a serious contribution to the paper
Discussing with your colleagues confidential data from a paper that youare reviewing for a journal
Trimming outliers from a data set without discussing your reasons in paper
Using an inappropriate statistical technique in order to enhance thesignificance of your research
Bypassing the peer review process and announcing your results through apress conference without giving peers adequate information to reviewyour work
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Conducting a review of the literature that fails to acknowledge thecontributions of other people in the field or relevant prior work
Stretching the truth on a grant application in order to convince reviewers
that your project will make a significant contribution to the field Stretching the truth on a job application or curriculum vita
Giving the same research project to two graduate students in order to seewho can do it the fastest
Overworking, neglecting, or exploiting graduate or post-doctoral students
Failing to keep good research records
Failing to maintain research data for a reasonable period of time Making derogatory comments and personal attacks in your review of
author's submission
Promising a student a better grade for sexual favors
Using a racist epithet in the laboratory
Making significant deviations from the research protocol approved by yourinstitution's Animal Care and Use Committee or Institutional Review Boardfor Human Subjects Research without telling the committee or the board
Not reporting an adverse event in a human research experiment
Wasting animals in research
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Exposing students and staff to biological risks inviolation of your institution's biosafety rules
Rejecting a manuscript for publication without evenreading it
Sabotaging someone's work
Stealing supplies, books, or data
Rigging an experiment so you know how it will turn out Making unauthorized copies of data, papers, or
computer programs
Owning over $10,000 in stock in a company thatsponsors your research and not disclosing this financial
interest Deliberately overestimating the clinical significance of a
new drug in order to obtain economic benefits
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Promoting Ethical Conduct in Science
Many of you may be wondering why you arerequired to have training in research ethics.
You may believe that you are highly ethical
and know the difference between right and
wrong. You would never fabricate or falsify
data or plagiarize. Indeed, you also may
believe that most of your colleagues are highly
ethical and that there is no ethics problem inresearch.
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If you feel this way, relax. No one is accusing youof acting unethically. Indeed, the best evidence
we have shows that misconduct is a very rareoccurrence in research, although there isconsiderable variation among various estimates.The rate of misconduct has been estimated to be
as low as 0.01% of researchers per year (based onconfirmed cases of misconduct in federallyfunded research) to as high as 1% of researchersper year (based on self-reports of misconduct on
anonymous surveys). See Shamoo and Resnik(2009), cited above.
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Clearly, it would be useful to have more data
on this topic, but so far there is no evidence
that science has become ethically corrupt.
However, even if misconduct is rare, it can
have a tremendous impact on research.
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Consider an analogy with crime: it does not
take many murders or rapes in a town toerode the community's sense of trust and
increase the community's fear and paranoia.
The same is true with the most serious crimes
in science, i.e. fabrication, falsification, andplagiarism.
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However, most of the crimes committed in
science probably are not tantamount to
murder or rape, but ethically significant
misdeeds that are classified by the
government as 'deviations.' Moreover, there
are many situations in research that posegenuine ethical dilemmas.
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Will training and education in research ethics
help reduce the rate of misconduct in science?
It is too early to tell. The answer to this
question depends, in part, on how one
understands the causes of misconduct. There
are two main theories about why researcherscommit misconduct. According to the "bad
apple" theory, most scientists are highly
ethical. Only researchers who are morally
corrupt, economically desperate, or
psychologically disturbed commit misconduct.
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Moreover, only a fool would commit
misconduct because science's peer reviewsystem and self-correcting mechanisms will
eventually catch those who try to cheat the
system. In any case, a course in research ethics
will have little impact on "bad apples," one
might argue.
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According to the "stressful" or "imperfect"
environment theory, misconduct occursbecause various institutional pressures,
incentives, and constraints encourage people
to commit misconduct, such as pressures to
publish or obtain grants or contracts, careerambitions, the pursuit of profit or fame, poor
supervision of students and trainees, and poor
oversight of researchers.
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Moreover, defenders of the stressful
environment theory point out that science's
peer review system is far from perfect andthat it is relatively easy to cheat the system.
Erroneous or fraudulent research often enters
the public record without being detected foryears.
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Misconduct probably results from
environmental and individual causes, i.e.when people who are morally weak, ignorant,
or insensitive are placed in stressful or
imperfect environments. In any case, a course
in research ethics is useful in helping toprevent deviations from norms even if it does
not prevent misconduct.
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Many of the deviations that occur in research
may occur because researchers simple do notknow or have never thought seriously about
some of the ethical norms of research.
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For example, some unethical authorship
practices probably reflect years of tradition in
the research community that have not been
questioned seriously until recently. If the
director of a lab is named as an author on
every paper that comes from his lab, even ifhe does not make a significant contribution,
what could be wrong with that? That's just the
way it's done, one might argue.
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If a drug company uses ghostwriters to write
papers "authored" by its physician-employees,what's wrong about this practice? Ghost
writers help write all sorts of books these
days, so what's wrong with using ghostwriters
in research?
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Another example where there may be some
ignorance or mistaken traditions is conflicts ofinterest in research. A researcher may think
that a "normal" or "traditional" financial
relationship, such as accepting stock or a
consulting fee from a drug company thatsponsors her research, raises no serious
ethical issues
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. Or perhaps a university administrator sees no
ethical problem in taking a large gift withstrings attached from a pharmaceutical
company. Maybe a physician thinks that it is
perfectly appropriate to receive a $300
finders fee for referring patients into a clinicaltrial.
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If "deviations" from ethical conduct occur in
research as a result of ignorance or a failure to
reflect critically on problematic traditions,then a course in research ethics may help
reduce the rate of serious deviations by
improving the researcher's understanding ofethics and by sensitizing him or her to the
issues.
Fi ll t i i i h thi h ld b bl t h l
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Finally, training in research ethics should be able to helpresearchers grapple with ethical dilemmas by introducingresearchers to important concepts, tools, principles, and
methods that can be useful in resolving these dilemmas. Infact, the issues have become so important that the NIH andNSF have mandated training in research ethics for graduatestudents.
David B. Resnik, JD, Ph.D.
(http://www.niehs.nih.govhttp://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/bioethicist.cfm)
Bioethicist and NIEHS IRB ChairTel (919) 541-5658Fax (919) [email protected]
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/