RESEARCH ETHICS: Record Keeping and Integrity

1. RESEARCH ETHICS: Record Keeping and Integrity Matthew Ronning Associate Vice Chancellor Research Administration

2. Introduction • Regulatory Compliance • Human Subjects • Animal Subjects • Conflicts of Interest • Export Controls • Scientific Misconduct • And waterskiing to boot!

3. Quiz

4. Definitions • Fabrication • Falsification • Plagiarism • Other non-scholarly behaviors • Fiduciary • Egocentricity • I suppose I’m guilty!

5. Where are the problems? • Lack of documentation • Lack of communication • Lack of caring • Pressure to finish • Leadership is missing • It starts in 2nd grade http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/lab_management

6. Where are the problems? Source: 2003 Office of Inspector General – National Science Foundation

7. Two Words on Documentation • Laboratory Notebooks • Challenges in the digital age • Fraud more prevalent with digital records • Forensics are available but not infallible • DO IT!

8. Systemize storage Naming conventions Back ups - tracked Log / diary Keep the failures What’s more important, validation or invalidation when testing a hypothesis? Arguably, invalidation is more important Repeating mistakes is stupid Failure to document what has been tried and failed is a tragedy to the body of knowledge. Digital Records

9. Pay Attention to YOU • Record – Keep it clean and be religious about it • Review –Remind yourself what you did the last few days. • Instruct – Document instructions given and received. Share docs. • Counsel – Let your subordinates and others know how to behave. • Think! – Stop for a moment and think about where you’ve been and where you are headed • Double Check – Lit search is not a one-stop shopping spree • Heal – Shore up adversarial relationships

10. Some Real Examples • Who thought of it first? – Plagiarism resulting from a case of “I don’t like you” • Change the numbers, then run the program. – Instructions for an NIH grant application or for an educational exercise? • XXX – 18 and older only