ETHICS HOW DO RESEARCH ETHICS RELATE TO MORALITY

ETHICS

HOW DO RESEARCH ETHICS RELATE TO MORALITY? • Trolley problem

HEINZ DILEMMA • In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2, 000, ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No. ” The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that? Why? Kohlberg, 1981

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT THING TO DO IS? • In life • In research

RESEARCH INTEGRITY “Responsible conduct of research is defined as the practice of scientific investigation with integrity. It involves the awareness and application of established professional norms and ethical principles in the performance of all activities related to scientific research” (Parkin, 2017)

MERTON’S (1942) SCIENTIFIC NORMS • Universalism • “Communism” • Disinterestedness • Organized skepticism

STENECK (2007) SHARED VALUES FOR RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH • Honesty • Accuracy • Efficiency • Objectivity

WHO DO SCIENTISTS HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES TO?

MICRO-LEVEL EXAMPLES OF RESPONSIBILITIES • Keeping clear records so that anyone can tell what you did • Report your results honestly • Know and follow regulations • Encourage discussion and sharing of data • Give credit where it’s deserved, and don’t take credit if you don’t deserve it • Seek out mentoring and be a good mentor • Find out how to do things the right way Borenstein & Plemmons, 2017

MACRO-LEVEL EXAMPLES OF RESPONSIBILITIES • Protect the public • Share your findings with the public • Communicate in a way that people will understand • Think about environmental impact and sustainability • Recognize possible uses of your research • Do research based on Borenstein & Plemmons, 2017

RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT OF RESEARCH AREAS • 1) Research misconduct • 2) Data management/sharing, ownership • 3) Conflicts of interest • 4) Responsible authorship and publication • 5) Human and animal participants • 6) Mentor/mentee relationships • 7) Collaborative research • 8) Peer review • 9) Scientific and societal impacts

1) RESEARCH MISCONDUCT • Fabrication • Falsification • Plagiarism

• Tom was supposed to find 10 primary sources for his paper. He had trouble finding 10, but the 6 he did find described 4 other studies. He wrote his paper, citing all 10 sources as if they were primary sources. Keith-Spiegel, Lee, Zinn-Monroe, & Spiegel, 1993

• Sam and Joe were assigned the use of the same lab space to run their experiments. Sam used the room early in the morning until about noon. He noticed that everything was exactly as he left when he returned the following day, suggesting that Joe never used the room. He asked if anyone ever saw Joe come in, and nobody had. Joe’s materials never “moved” and they began to collect a thin coat of dust. However, Joe always turned in his weekly data sheets.

FRAUD, FALSIFICATION • Why does it matter that data be reported honestly? • Who is hurt by fraud?

STRATEGIES TO AVOID PLAGIARISM • • Rewrite your notes Use “ in notes for quotes Always put page # for quotes Don’t use many quotes Read, then pause before writing without the article beside you Read all sources directly (don’t use secondary sources) Make notes on the article – More important, more extreme • Outline your paper and then fill in – More important attitudes are more extreme. – College students and elementary school children on school proposals (Harton & Latane, 1998) – When judging others (Justin, 2000) – Believe others will do too (Mc. Conahay & Costa, 2004)

2) DATA MANAGEMENT, SHARING, AND OWNERSHIP • What do your data look like?

• Data sharing issues – Identifiability (now and later) – Do you need to share your data? • Who owns the data? Scientist who is asked to share his data

QUESTIONABLE RESEARCH PRACTICES (QRPS) • “QRPs are the steroids of scientific competition, artificially enhancing performance and producing a kind of arms race in which researchers who strictly play by the rules are at a competitive disadvantage. " (John, Loewenstein, & Prelec, 2012, p. 524)

EXAMPLES OF QRPS • Not collecting enough samples (relying on chance results) • Deleting some cases to make your research look better • Not reporting all measures • Stopping data collection when you have significant findings • Selectively reporting only the studies that “worked” • Analyzing the results different ways and reporting those that come out best • “Fishing” for results

3) CONFLICTS OF INTEREST • What types of conflicts of interests could one have in research? • Be open and honest about any potential conflicts.

CASE DISCUSSION • Dr. Rivera has a grant from the Handy Corporation (which builds solar panels) to examine the efficiency of using solar panels for energy in the Midwest. His study finds that solar panels are an efficient energy source, but only for some of the areas in his study, and only as compared to coal and natural gas (not as compared to wind energy). He considers how he should write up his results and whether he should focus primarily on some comparisons rather than others. He really believes that solar panels are the way to go, despite his results.

4) RESPONSIBLE AUTHORSHIP AND PUBLICATION • What does it mean to be an author?