EDUCATION
Courses Address Ethical Research Practices In The Chemical Sciences • Chemistry departments at Iowa and Maryland offer courses on scientific fraud; at Tennessee, casebook spurs ethics discussion ontroversy over scientific misconduct and how to handle such incidents has been the focus of much debate in recent years. Now, a few chemistry departments are beginning to formalize the training of students in ethical research practices: Two chemistry departments recently have developed new courses treating ethics in research, and at a third chemistry de-
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partment, a casebook of hypothetical ethical dilemmas for use in seminar discussions has been compiled. A course entitled "Fraud in the Chemical Sciences" was taught for the first time this fall on a trial basis in the department of chemistry at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Although a fledgling effort with only eight students enrolled, the course has struck a responsive chord. Course developer and chemistry professor Mark A. Arnold says the word among students is that "every first-year graduate student should take this." In the five-week, one-credit seminar, students discussed issues pertaining to misconduct and fraudulent behavior in the chemical sciences. Says Arnold: "One specific goal [was] to examine the
problems and pressures within the research environment that cause or permit fraudulent behavior." An additional goal, he says, was to explore the responsibilities of research advisers, department and university officials, governmental funding agencies, and state and federal governing bodies in dealing with episodes of scientific misconduct. Senior chemistry and education majors joined first-, second-, and third-year graduate students in exploring these issues. Arnold says the course examined the cycle that research commonly follows in practice—from concept through generation of preliminary data and proposal writing to carrying out experimental research and the rush to publish. In the process, the course addresses how pressures arise that may lead some re-
Casebook presents examples of ethical problems confronted by chemists The following case study is excerpted posal, it will be weaker and the probfrom a casebook called "The Ethical ability of funding will be decreased. What should you do? Chemist," developed by Jeffrey Kovac of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.Questions: • What are the ethical issues raised Case Bl: in this case? Research Proposal Deadline • What moral principles should you Your grant renewal proposal... is use to decide on a proper course of due in a few weeks. The primary ba- action? sis for the renewal is a series of ex- • Who will be affected by your deperiments being carried out by one cision? of your best graduate students. Un- • Is there a most ethical course of fortunately, the results have not yet action? Are there several acceptable shown a statistically significant ef- courses of action? fect of a certain class of compounds on the rates of growth of tumors in Commentary: mice. You strongly suspect that such The questions are designed to help an effect will eventually be proven, the students think through issues but there is not enough time to finish raised by this case. They will help another set of experiments before the guide a class discussion. proposal deadline. If, however, you The major issue here is the ethics omit a few extreme data points, the of "cooking" or "trimming" the data. results will appear to be statistically There is pressure on the student to significant. This will virtually ensure produce results for the research prothat your proposal will be funded posal. Your career and that of your and keep your research going for student depend on continued fundthree more years. If you include all ing. The temptation is to make things the data points in the renewal pro- come out correctly by making a small
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change in the data. To some, it will seem analogous to a "white lie." This kind of situation comes up regularly in science. The working scientist is often called on to make a judgment as to whether to keep or discard a measurement. There are lots of legitimate reasons to throw out data points: the instrument was not working properly, the calibration was not done correctly, the solution must have been prepared incorrectly, there is an impurity in the system, etc. There are also statistical criteria, such as the Q test, which are used to discard [outliers!. ... When is this good scientific judgment and when is this wishful thinking? When does wishful thinking become misconduct? If the data are trimmed to make the proposal look stronger and it is funded, what are the consequences if the effect is ultimately not proved to be correct? How should the principal investigator proceed? What can the granting agency do? Finally, what is the effect of this kind of misconduct on the broader scientific community?
searchers to commit questionable acts— or even out-and-out misconduct. The course examined a wide range of ethical problems encountered in research, including plagiarism and the treatment of controversial scientific results. In one assignment, for example, students were asked to detail the events and claims surrounding the "water memory" issue—a well-known case of a paper, published in Nature [333,816 (1988)], suggesting that an aqueous solution of an antibody retains its biological activity even after extreme dilution. Students in the course studied the ethical guidelines for publication promulgated by the American Chemical Society [Ace. Chem. Res., 27, 179 (1994)]. Guest speakers included University of Iowa associate vice president for research Derek H. Willard, who spoke about responsibilities and concerns of the federal government regarding scientific misconduct. University ombudsman Nancy R. Hauserman was joined by Stephana Colbert, senior associate counsel for the university, in a discussion of the role of the university when allegations of scientific misconduct arise. Students taking the course developed a pilot survey about fraud in chemistry and distributed it to students in the Iowa chemistry department. The survey attempted to assess the general climate in the department concerning misconduct and to discern individual perceptions about misconduct, specifically fabrication or falsification of research data. The survey investigated whether respondents would feel comfortable reporting an incident of scientific misconduct to a research adviser or department chairman and whether they believed the department maintains high standards of integrity with respect to scientific misconduct. Although the results remain confidential, Arnold tells C&EN that the survey was a useful learning experience and that it may be further refined and tested in future courses. At the University of Maryland, College Park, chemistry professor Sandra C. Greer has developed a course called "Ethics in Science," which was taught on an experimental basis last spring. Ten students from various departments including chemistry, computer science, zoology, and philosophy took it, Greer says. Recently, the course has been made a regular offering at Maryland.
The course explores ethics and scientific truth, including proper data analysis, data presentation, and record keeping. Issues of proper attribution in publications, confidentiality, and conflicts of interest are examined. The course also covers ethical treatment of human and animal subjects. At the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, chemistry professor Jeffrey D. Kovac has developed a casebook of ethical problems in chemical research. Entitled "The Ethical Chemist," the compendium contains more than 30 hypothetical ethical dilemmas that chemists or chemistry graduate students might encounter. The casebook was developed with support from the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation. "In science, moral decisions are made on a week-to-week basis," Kovac observes. "Most of us are confronted with the little things, like should I discard this data point or not? It's a lot of 'white lie' situations." Kovac's cases are designed for use in discussion sessions involving senior
chemistry majors and/or graduate students. His approach is predicated on the assumptions that the ability to make ethical decisions is a behavior that can be learned and that the best way to teach people to be moral decisionmakers is to confront them with situations with which they can identify. The problems, Kovac says, must seem real enough so that people can see the ambiguities of the dilemma. "It's easy to tell vour neighbor what to do, but when vou're faced with the situation yourself, vou see the subtleties," he says. The casebook consists of a series of situation statements that pose an ethical problem, each followed by a brief commentary. A wide range of situations are treated, from grant applications and peer review practices to software copying and breaches of laboratory safety procedures. Copies of the casebook are available from Kovac at the department of chemistry, 552 Buehler Hall, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn., 37996-1600; phone (615) 974-3141. Deborah lllman
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