DEFINITION Ethics refers to moral issues involved in

DEFINITION “Ethics” refers to moral issues involved in statistical investigations in medicine, the scientific integrity of the investigator, and the obligations implicit in the doctor/ patient relationship ETHICS are rules of conduct concerned with preventing the possibility of inflicting harm upon others.

ETHICS, LIKE BIASES, ARE A CONSIDERATION THROUCHOUT A RESEARCH PROJECT

Key issues in publication ethics ► Data analysis and presentation ► Authorship ► Conflicts of interest ► Peer review ► Redundant publication ► Plagiarism ► Duties of editors ► Media relations ► Advertising ► Research misconduct

Authorship (from reference) Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to: ► Conception and design or analysis and interpretation of data; and ► Drafts of the article or critical revisions for important intellectual content; and ► Final approval of the version to be published.

Research misconduct Errors of Judgment ► Inadequate study design ► Bias ► Self delusion ► Inappropriate statistical analysis Misdemeanors (“trimming and cooking”) ► Data manipulation ► Data exclusion ► Suppression of inconvenient facts ► Fabrication ► Falsification ► plagiarism Fraud

Prevention of research and publication misconduct Education ►Research training ►Research ethics ►Publication ethics

Prevention of research and publication misconduct The research ► Protocol driven ► Establish contributors and collaborators § Define roles § Agree protocol § Agree presentation of results ► Define methodology for data analysis § Statistical advice ► Ethical approval ► Project and personal license (Home Office) ► Supervision § Identify guarantor § Good communication § Ensure good clinical practice § Meticulous recorded keeping

Prevention of research and publication misconduct` The publication ►Disclose conflict of interest ►Disclose previous publication ►Approval by all contributors ►Submit to one journal at a time ►Assume research data audit

Scientific misconduct 2011 saw some particularly high-profile cases. In October, prominent psychologist Diederik Stapel was fired by Tilburg University in the Netherlands after an investigation committee found extensive fraud in his work.

Scientific misconduct Three months earlier, evolutionary psychologist Marc Hauser resigned from Harvard University following last year's misconduct findings, but while the US Office of Research Integrity continues to investigate the case, exact details of what he did remain remarkably scant.

Scientific misconduct The scandal involving cancer geneticist Anil Potti, who resigned from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in 2010, reached new heights in September, when patients enrolled in clinical trials based on his science brought a lawsuit against the university and the scientists involved, claiming that they had been harmed.

Scientific misconduct And November saw the dramatic arrest and brief jailing of Judy Mikovits, prominent for her work (now partially retracted) linking syndrome to a virus. chronic fatigue