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On Being a Scientist

Research is based on the same ethical values that apply in everyday life

Honesty
Fairness
Objectivity
Openness
Trustworthiness
Respect for others.

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Obligations of a Responsible Researcher

1. Student researchers in the SEPA program, like scientists in any program, have an obligation to honor the trust that other student researchers place in them.

Each year, students from Maine and New Hampshire will contribute to an ongoing research project on arsenic and other toxic metals in drinking water. We must trust that the data are accurate!

2. Student researchers have an obligation to themselves.

Adhering to best standards in collecting and reporting data builds personal integrity
By doing the best job possible, students will achieve their own goals for their education while contributing to the larger goals of the “Communicating Data” project

3. Student researchers have an obligation to act in ways that serve the public

Results of the All About Arsenic project may directly affect the health and well-being of family, neighbors, and friends.
Policymakers may use student data to make decisions about arsenic levels in well water or allocate funds to low-income households for arsenic remediation.
Taxpayer dollars fund the “Communicating Data” project. In some ways, students are like public servants!

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Data are integral to all research, including student research in the “Communicating Data” project.
How you manage data is important. You should know where and how to record data, where datasheets are kept, and how to enter data into Anecdata.
The integrity of data is of paramount importance. If we cannot connect drinking water sample data to the household data, a family may not get their results in a timely manner. Or worse yet, they may not get their results at all.

Treatment of Data

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Data Collection

Considerations regarding data collection include:

Appropriate methods
Attention to detail
Authorizations

Human subjects- when working with humans, you sometimes need approval from an Institutional Review Board or IRB. This helps to protect people’s rights and privacy. Even when doing a survey of people, it is good to have IRB approval.
Animal subjects- when working with vertebrate animals, you need approval from The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee or IACUC. This helps you to minimize the number of animals you use and be sure that you are treating them humanely.
Biological agents- when working with biological reagents, like bacteria, you should check with your teacher or safety officer so that you handle and dispose of everything safely.
Hazardous Materials -when working with chemicals, you should check with your teacher safety officer so that you handle and dispose of everything safely.

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Data Management

Data must be protected for later use:

Data Storage

Lab notebooks should be kept in a safe place; computer files should be backed up; samples should be kept in a safe place.

Confidentiality

Some data may be subject to privacy restrictions (human subjects or confidential information about home well water)

Retention

In general data must be retained after the completion of the research. Your teacher will make sure that there is a record of every water sample brought into the classroom.

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Data Sharing

Although there is general agreement that research data must be shared there are often difficult questions that must be addressed especially when doing public health research like in the “Communicating Data” project.

Data on well samples

it is not necessary or appropriate to reveal who you got drinking water samples from
it is not necessary or appropriate to tell anyone about your own home (whether you already have high arsenic or other metals or use a household filtration system)
it is not necessary or appropriate to share arsenic results with each other.

Can you think of some reasons why?

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Classroom Experiments

It is important to treat classroom experiments as if you are planning to publish the data in a scientific journal. How you conduct these experiments, handle your data, analyze and report your results, will begin to shape your habits as a researcher. Some student data have been published in the scientific literature. You never know!

Lettuce seed bioassays

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Classroom Experiments

What are some responsible research practices that have been initiated in this lettuce seed bioassay?

Hint:

how many replicates are there of each treatment?

How can you keep track of which dish with seeds is which?

Lettuce seed bioassays

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Classroom Experiments: Image Manipulation

Manipulation of images:

It is wrong to manipulate images, for example, by making duckweed appear greener or more yellow than it is.

In what ways would It be appropriate to change this image of a Daphnia? In what ways would it not be appropriate?

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Classroom Experiments: Image Manipulation

It is not ok to cut and paste images together.

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Scientific Publication Practices and Responsible Authorship

Researchers typically share the results of their activities with colleagues and the public through publication.
Results of publication in research should meet some minimum standards:

A full and fair description of the work,
An accurate report of the results,
An honest and open assessment of the findings.

Student research may not end up in publication, but any reports of findings that are made should follow these standards.

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Responsible Publications

Elements of a responsible publication

Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Acknowledgements

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Responsible Authorship

The names on a paper or report let others know who conducted the research and should get credit for the work
The authors listed on papers or reports should fairly and accurately represent the person(s) responsible for the work

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Research Misconduct

Research misconduct is serious and has received considerable public attention.

Researchers who act dishonestly

Harm the research record
Waste public funds
Distort the research process
Undermine public trust
May adversely impact public health and safety

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Research Misconduct

Research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting results.

Fabrication is making up data or results and recording or reporting them

Falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record

Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving them appropriate credit

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The MMR vaccine and autism: Sensation, refutation, retraction, and fraud

T. S. Sathyanarayana Rao and Chittaranjan Andrade¹

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield and 12 of his colleagues[1]
published a case series in the Lancet, which suggested that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine may predispose to behavioral regression and pervasive developmental disorder in children.
Despite the small sample size (n=12), the uncontrolled design, and the speculative nature of the conclusions, the paper received wide publicity.
MMR vaccination rates began to drop because parents were concerned about the risk of autism after vaccination.[2]
Almost immediately afterward, epidemiological studies were conducted and published, refuting the posited link between MMR vaccination and autism.[3,4]
The next episode in the saga was a short retraction of the interpretation of the original data by 10 of the 12 co-authors of the paper. According to the retraction, “no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient”.[5]
This was accompanied by an admission by the Lancet that Wakefield et al.[1] had failed to disclose financial interests (e.g., Wakefield had been funded by lawyers who had been engaged by parents in lawsuits against vaccine-producing companies). The Lancet completely retracted the Wakefield et al.[1] paper in February 2010, admitting that several elements in the paper were incorrect, contrary to the findings of the earlier investigation.[7]
Wakefield et al.[1] were held guilty of ethical violations (they had conducted invasive investigations on the children without obtaining the necessary ethical clearances)
The final episode in the saga is the revelation that Wakefield et al.[1] were guilty of deliberate fraud (they picked and chose data that suited their case; they falsified facts).[9]

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Research Misconduct

Research misconduct does not include honest errors, differences of opinion, or honest differences in interpretations or judgments of data.

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Responsible Conduct of Research

Continuum	Definition
Research integrity	Best practices
Questionable research practices	Sloppy work, lack of expertise, or ignorance of policies and regulations
Unacceptable research practices	Ignorance of best practices, failure to correctly observe applicable policies and regulations
Research misconduct	Deliberate efforts to plagiarize, fabricate, or falsify research data

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Responsible Conduct of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities �Michigan State University Graduate School, 2010 http://grad.msu.edu/

Case A
Jay, a student from Maine, is putting together a pamphlet on arsenic in well water samples from his class study. There were not any samples greater than 10 ppb. He thought that this would not be convincing data to share with the community. He was afraid no one would test their wells because his class’s findings did not reveal a problem. He made up numbers to make the graph show elevated arsenic in two samples.

Questions

Is this plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or serious deviation from best practice?
What consequences could Jay be facing?
How could this problem be prevented?

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Fabrication. Jay created made up numbers. He doesn’t have any actual elevated arsenic data to display in his pamphlet.

Consequences if Jay’s fabrication is detected:

Jay could get in trouble with his teacher. His fellow students may be upset that he made up numbers. As a result, his reputation as a serious student or student researcher could be affected.
Jay may not be trusted to handle classroom data in the future.
Jay may get a failing grade.
The All About Arsenic project leaders may question whether they can trust students to take on this kind of serious public outreach

Consequences if Jay’s fabrication is not detected:

If the pamphlet with the false numbers is distributed in the community, people may be more concerned than necessary about the problem with their well water.
Jay may conclude that he “got by” with falsification. This may cause Jay to attempt falsification again in the future.

Prevention. Students can check each other’s work. Outreach materials can be shared with project leaders for double-checking.

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Responsible Conduct of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities �Michigan State University Graduate School, 2010 http://grad.msu.edu/

Case B
Mitchell, a student from New Hampshire, read an article about using water pitcher filters to remove arsenic from well water. He decided to do an experiment to test the same water pitcher filters. He thought that double checking the results in the publication would be very convincing to people in his community. He made similar conclusions to the published paper. In a public meeting, Mitchell said that he had the idea to use pitcher filters and, from his results, recommends using pitcher filters if arsenic in well water is high.

Questions

Is this plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or serious deviation?
What consequences could Mitchell be facing?
How could this problem be prevented?

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Plagiarism. Mitchell got the idea from someone else and said that the idea was his.

Consequences if Mitchell’s plagiarism is detected:

Someone in the community, listening to Mitchell’s presentation, might know about the published article and wonder why Mitchell didn’t mention it. This might make them think that other things that Mitchell and his classmates are saying might not be true.
If Mitchell is knowledgeable about plagiarism and claimed the idea as his own, he could be reprimanded in some way by his teacher or school
If Mitchell is truly ignorant about this aspect of plagiarism, he may be given an opportunity to correct the situation. This might involve writing a letter to the community, or some other action.

Consequences if Mitchell’s plagiarism is not detected:

Mitchell may remain ignorant, never realizing that he did plagiarize. As a result, he may repeat this behavior. (Given that teachers have a responsibility to educate their students about responsible conduct of research, this outcome should be very improbable.)
If Mitchell repeats this behavior in college, he could be expelled. If Mitchell repeats this behavior later in his scientific career, he could lose a grant, have a research paper retracted, or lose his job and destroy his career prospects.

Prevention:

Mitchell should state when he is using other people’s research. It will only strengthen his own findings.
If the other research isn’t published, he can ask permission to use the idea, if he gives credit to the person who originated the idea.

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If a student faces a difficult situation

If students think that there has been some research misconduct

Do not rely upon hearsay
Do not make the situation worse – avoid rumors
Avoid emotional reactions
Ask for clarification from teammates

Talk to the teacher

Ask for advice about resolving the problem
Seek education about what it means to be a responsible researcher

Responsible Conduct of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities �Michigan State University Graduate School, 2010 http://grad.msu.edu/

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Remember

Research misconduct does not include honest errors, differences of opinion, or honest differences in interpretations or judgments of data.

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Sources

Steneck, N. H. (2006). ORI Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research, http://ori.dhhs.gov/education/products/RCRintro/

U.S. Office of Research Integrity�http://ori.dhhs.gov/policies/fed_research_misconduct.shtml

Responsible Conduct of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Michigan State University Graduate School, 2010 http://grad.msu.edu

On Being a Scientist: a guide to responsible conduct in research; Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. 2009, 3^rd edition. https://www.nap.edu/download/12192

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