Research Ethics for Scientists

C. Neal Stewart, Jr., Professor and Ivan Racheff Chair of Excellence, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee.

Preface xi Acknowledgements and Dedication xiii

Chapter 1 Research Ethics: The Best Ethical Practices Produce the Best Science 1

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Morality vs ethics 4

Inauspicious beginnings 6

How science works 7

Summary 9

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Chapter 2 How Corrupt is Science? 11

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"Scientists behaving badly" 12

Do scientists behave worse with experience? 14

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Crime and punishment 15

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Summary 20

Chapter 3 Plagiarise and Perish 21

Ideas 23

Sentences 23

Phrases 23

A hoppy example 24

What is plagiarism, really? 24

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How many consecutive identical and uncited words constitute plagiarism? 25

Self-plagiarism and recycling 26

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Tools to discover plagiarism 33

Self-plagiarism and ethics revisited 34

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Is plagiarism getting worse? 35

The case of the plagiarising graduate student 35

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v

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Summary 38

Chapter 4 Finding the Perfect Mentor 39

Caveat 40

Choosing a mentor 40

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Choosing a graduate project 46

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Mentors for assistant professors 47

How to train your mentor 52

Choosing the right research project: the new graduate student’s dilemma 54

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Summary 56

Chapter 5 Becoming the Perfect Mentor 57

Grants and contracts are a prerequisite to productive science 57

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Publications are the fruit of research 59

On a personal level 59

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Common and predictable mistakes scientist make at key stages in their training and careers and how being a good mentor can make improvements 60

Questions 70

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Summary 72

Chapter 6 Research Misconduct: Fabricating Data 73

Why cheat? 74

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The case of Jan Hendrick Sch¨on, "Plastic Fantastic" 76

The case of Woo-Suk Hwang: dog cloner, data fabricator 77

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Detection of image and data misrepresentation 78

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Neither here nor there – the curious case of Homme Hellinga 81

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Lessons learnt 83

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Summary 85

Chapter 7 Research Misconduct: Falsification and Whistleblowing 87

A "can of worms" indeed: the case of Elizabeth "Betsy" Goodwin 89

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Deal with ethical quandaries informally if possible 99

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Cultivating a culture of openness, integrity, and accountability 100

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Summary 103

Chapter 8 Authorship: Who’s an Author on a Scientific Paper and Why 105

The importance of the scientific publication 106

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Who should be listed as an author on a scientific paper? 107

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How to avoid author quandaries 110

Authorship for works other than research papers 111

The difference between authorship on scientific papers and inventorship on patents 112

Other thoughts on authorship and publications 113

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Summary 119

Chapter 9 Grant Proposals: Ethics and Success Intertwined 121

Why funding is crucial 121

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Path to success in funding 125

Fair play and collaboration 126

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Recordkeeping and fiscal responsibility 128

Pushing the limits on proposals 129

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Summary 134

Chapter 10 Peer Review and The Ethics of Privileged Information 135

The history of peer review 135

The nature of journals and the purpose of peer review 136

Which papers to review? 140

Anonymity 140

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Grant proposals 141

Confidentiality and privileged information 142

Reviewers 143

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Summary 146

Chapter 11 Data and Data Management: The Ethics of Data 147

Stewardship of data 148

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The land of in-between: ethics of data presented at professional meetings 156

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Future of data management 160

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Summary 161

Chapter 12 Conflicts of Interest 163

The dynamic landscape of conflicts of interest 164

Potential conflicts of interest for university scientists 165

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Conflicts of interest within labs or universities 169

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Summary 177

Chapter 13 What Kind of Research Science World Do We Want? 179

"A culture of discipline and an ethic of entrepreneurship" 180

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Too much pressure? 181

Integrity awareness through ethics education 184

Accountability 185

We scientists 185

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Summary 187

Appendix 189

References 203

Index 209