This week in Future Professoriates, we were tasked with checking out the Office of Research Integrity's website which "oversees and directs Public Health Service (PHS) research integrity activities on behalf of the Secretary of Health and Human Services". They're also an excellent resource if you encounter ethical issues in research and need some advice on how to proceed. They keep track of and publish a summary of each of their misconduct cases as well. I chose a case at random to read through and give my thoughts on.
As a graduate student, I'm constantly exposed to the rights and wrongs surrounding research. However, we're also exposed to the little wrongs that we may let slide by that don't impact the results of the project. So, how do we learn to draw the line? I think by reading some of these cases (although extreme), you'll realize just how important it is to maintain honesty and ethics when conducting research.
In 2016, a postdoctoral fellow at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC was found to have severely violated the ethics all researchers are held to. The student falsified and fabricated data that was included in 2 published papers, 1 submitted manuscript, 2 poster presentations and 7 grant applications. Specifically, the fellow falsely claimed to have generated recombinant Clostridium perfringens (Cp) strains to depict their effects on their ability to destroy cancer cells in a murine model, when in fact, the bacterial strains nor the data derived from them were developed by the fellow. The fellow also trimmed and used portions of multiple figures to represent unrelated results, in multiple papers, pulling figures from other papers and claiming that they represented the fellow's data, even though the image and proposed data were not representing the same thing.
The consequences of these findings are as follows:
The following administrative actions have been implemented for a period of five (5) years, beginning on July 3, 2016:
(1) Respondent is debarred from any contracting or subcontracting with any agency of the United States Government and from eligibility for, or involvement in, nonprocurement programs of the United States Government referred to as “covered transactions” pursuant to HHS’ Implementation (2 C.F.R. Part 376 et seq) of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Guidelines to Agencies on Governmentwide Debarment and Suspension, 2 C.F.R. Part 180 (collectively the “Debarment Regulations”); and
(2) Respondent is prohibited from serving in any advisory capacity to the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) including, but not limited to, service on any PHS advisory committee, board, and/or peer review committee, or as a consultant.
In my opinion, it seems as though this fellow got off light. In exchange for knowingly falsifying data including plagiarizing others' works, this person can't apply for research grants or work in any capacity with the US Public Health Service...for just FIVE years! This seems to be a drop in the bucket compared to one's career. I would have expected more severe consequences for a crime of this nature. In 5 years, this person can again be applying for grants and conducting research. Will this person have learned their lesson?
On the flip side, I always wonder about the details of the case. Was this fellow honestly unaware that what they were doing was wrong? Were they under the direction of someone else? Was this an outstanding researcher who just made a mistake? I'll never know. However, if any of these scenarios apply, then it seems that the consequences are fair. 5 years taken away from this person's life, in what may be a critical point during their career to be conducting research, seems like it would make a lasting impact on that person's life and sway them from doing anything like this ever again.
In conclusion, I guess I'd like to see more education on ethics in research. Every grad student I know either knows someone first hand, or knows a story about someone conducting themselves in a less than ethical manner when it came to research. Even though these were very small infractions that (again) didn't change the project outcome, how does that teach future researchers how to conduct themselves ethically? I think it breeds a slippery slope and could have contributed to this fellow's actions. I think that all students (undergraduate and graduate) should be required to take a class on ethics in research, so that we can hopefully prevent events like this from ever happening.