Research Ethics:Review and Resources

2008 Summer Seminar for Postdocs

UNC-Chapel Hill

Douglas MacLean and Jamaal Pitt

• UNC – Mission Statement

• Themes of the Course

• Resources for Ethics Questions

UNC Mission

• The mission of the University is shaped in large measure by the constitutional and statutory mandates by which public higher education is established and maintained. Article IX of the Constitution of the State declares:

– Sec. 8. Higher education. The General Assembly shall maintain a public system of higher education, comprising The University of North Carolina and such other institutions of higher education as the General Assembly may deem wise . . . .

– Sec. 9. Benefits of public institutions of higher education. The General Assembly shall provide that the benefits of The University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense.

UNC Mission, cont.

• The Higher Education Reorganization Act of 1971, which placed those 16 institutions under one governing board, asserted the basic objectives and purposes for the University of North Carolina: to foster the development of a well-planned and coordinated system of higher education, to improve the quality of education, to extend its benefits, and to encourage an economical use of the state's resources.

UNC Mission Statement

• The University of North Carolina is a public, multi-campus university dedicated to the service of North Carolina and its people. It encompasses the 16 diverse constituent institutions and other educational, research, and public service organizations. Each shares in the overall mission of the University. That mission is to discover, create, transmit, and apply knowledge to address the needs of individuals and society. …

UNC Mission Statement, cont.

• This mission is accomplished through instruction, which communicates the knowledge and values and imparts the skills necessary for individuals to lead responsible, productive, and personally satisfying lives; through research, scholarship, and creative activities, which advance knowledge and enhance the educational process; and through public service, which contributes to the solution of societal problems and enriches the quality of life in the State. In the fulfillment of this mission, the University shall seek an efficient use of available resources to ensure the highest quality in its service to the citizens of the State. …

UNC Mission Statement, cont.

• Teaching and learning constitute the primary service that the University renders to society. Teaching, or instruction, is the primary responsibility of each of the constituent institutions. The relative importance of research and public service, which enhance teaching and learning, varies among the constituent institutions, depending on their overall missions.

Review: Purpose of this course

• Increase knowledge of and sensitivity to issues surrounding research ethics

• Improve the ability of participants to reason about ethical choices

Review, cont.

• Research:– A systematic investigation, including development,

testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.

• Practical Ethics:– A branch of philosophy that analyzes arguments

about what is good and bad, right and wrong.

• Professional values:– Self-regulating– Pursue social goals

Review, cont.

• Voluntary informed consent– Legal capacity to give consent

(no children or mentally impaired)– Genuinely free to exercise choice

(no force, fraud, or deception)– Institutional Review Boards (IRB)

(Designed to protect research subjects)

Review, cont.

• Authorship– Requires substantial participation– The following conditions are all necessary:

• Help to conceive design and method, or help to analyze and interpret data

• Help to draft article or revise its intellectual content.• Approve final draft.

– Does not justify authorship:• Secured funding• Generally supervised the group• Has seniority or outstanding credentials

Review, cont.

• Avoiding authorship disputes– Communicate early and often– Acknowledge sponsor– If conflicts persist, send colleague in writing a

detailed account of your perspective

Review, cont.

• Research misconduct– Falsification – altering data– Fabrication – creating data– Plagiarism – borrowing ideas or words without

appropriate attribution

• Copyright (legal protection of intellectual property)– Original works of authorship (books, software)– Covers the particular expression of an idea in the

work– The idea itself cannot be copyrighted.

Ethics Web Sites

POLICY AND PROCEDURES ON ETHICS IN RESEARCH

http://www.unc.edu/campus/policies/ethics.html

Ethics Web Site, cont.

• Procedure:– 1. Consult informally and in confidence with the

department chair.– 2. If discussions confirm the seriousness of the

report, the chair should report in writing to the Dean.• If the chair does not go forward, the Post-doc may go directly

to Dean.– 3. The Dean is responsible for conducting an inquiry.

• The School of Medicine has its own research integrity officer, Dr. Robert Collier, Department of Pediatrics.

University Compliance Hotline

https://secure.ethicspoint.com/domain/en/report_company.asp

Tel: 1-866-294-8688

• Conflicts of interest

• https://cfx3.research.unc.edu/coi/coi_policy.cfm

For all matters on ethics --

The Parr Center for Ethics:

http://parrcenter.unc.edu/

http://www.nih.gov/sigs/bioethics/IRB.html

National Institutes of Health

Ethics Web Sites on the Web

http://rcrec.org/

Responsible Conduct of Research Education Consortium

http://ethics.iit.edu/codes/

Data acquisition, management, ownership

Mentor / trainee responsibilities

http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/rcr/rcr_mentoring/

Authorship and peer review

http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/rcr/rcr_authorship/

http://www.primr.org/

Research involving use of humans

Research involving use of animals

http://research.unc.edu/iacuc/links.php

Research misconduct

http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/rcr/rcr_misconduct/

Conflict of interest and commitment

http://www.nih.gov/about/ethics_COI.htm