Integrated Medical Education Resources: 140507P - ETHICS OF PUBLISHING RESEARCH

Presentation at a seminar on research ethics, University of Dammam May 24, 2014 by Prof Omar Hasan Kasule

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH MALPRACTICE: prevalence and attitudes

· Seeds of research malpractice are in the research proposal

· Research malpractice is common[1]

· Violation of ethics reason for retractions[2]

· Research malpractice reflects wrong attitudes

· Short course can change attitude to fraud[3]

· Researchers recognize fraud but do not blow the whistle[4] [5]

· Poor attitude to plagiarism in Iran[6]

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH MALPRACTICE: causes

· Research grants are an avenue for academic promotion and professional growth[7]

· Competitive nature of scientific grants may motivate misbehavior

· Career and reputation from publishing can motivate misconduct[8]

· Funding expectations are associated with research misbehavior: public vs private[9]

· Research wrong doing in Nigeria due to knowledge gaps in ethics and the pressure to publish[10]

PROTOCOL: INVESTIGATORS AND AUTHORSHIP

· Principal investigator / co-investigators or sub-investigators must be mentioned

· All names mentioned must have substantial recorded contribution

· The issue of the senior author/boss/friend/colleague?: scratch my back and I scratch yours

· All names mentioned must have agreed to be part of the study

· Doubtful cases: students, research assistants, laboratory technicians?

PROTOCOL: ORIGINALITY

· Thorough literature review to make sure this investigation is original

· Check clearing houses such as Cochrane and www.clinicaltrials.org

· Cite and acknowledge all information used in the proposal

· Why repeat research already done? Local experience / training/scientific validation

· Writing proposals from boiler plates

PROTOCOL: PLAGIARISM: definition

· Create or copy?. Is it possible to create from nothing?[11].

· Plagiarism is a complex phenomena that may be related to memory lapses and not always deliberate deception[12] [13] [14]

· Un-intended plagiarism: ideas gained in discussions or from the class room?

· What if it is your original idea bit someone already thought of it?

· Self plagiarism[15]?

PROTOCOL: PLAGIARISM: detection and avoidance

· Plagiarism detection services[16]

· If in doubt run a plagiarism software.

· Plagiarism detection can be quick[17] or can be sophisticated[18]. Even Google can help

· If you are a research administrator should you write proposals?

PROTOCOL: PROTECTING YOUR IDEAS FROM PLAGIARISTS

· Discuss your research with colleagues / students OR be secretive

· Departmental review / research committees?

· Carefully document your new ideas and create evidence they are yours

PROTOCOL: CONFIDENTIALITY and PRIVACY

· Measures of protecting personal data must be described

· Access to personal research data: papers and computers must be on a need to know basis

· Use of anonymized data

PROTOCOL: INFORMED CONSENT

· Description of information to be given to subjects

· Description of the process of informed consent

· Attach documents to be used

PROTOCOL: DISCLOSURE

· Disclose all what you want to do in objectives and methods.

· Do not add secret ideas later for fear they may not be approved if presented upfront

· If you get additional ideas submit an amendment

PROTOCOL: FINANCIAL INTEGRITY / COI

· Mention other sources of funding

· Conflict of interest regarding the expected sponsor

· Paying someone to write part or all the proposal

PROTOCOL: REGULATORY AFFAIRS

· IRB requirements

· SFDA requirements

· GCP requirements

· Others eg NIH

PUBLICATION: INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR AUTHORS[1]:

• The research being reported should have been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and should comply with all relevant legislation.

• Researchers should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation.

• Researchers should strive to describe their methods clearly and unambiguously so that their findings can be confirmed by others.

PUBLICATION: INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR AUTHORS

• Researchers should adhere to publication requirements that submitted work is original, is not plagiarised, and has not been published elsewhere.

• Authors should take collective responsibility for submitted and published work.

• The authorship of research publications should accurately reflect individuals’ contributions to the work and its reporting.

• Funding sources and relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed.

PUBLICATION BIAS (Wikipedia)

· Bias to reporting positive findings

· Bias to significant results

· Investigator refusing to submit results for publication

· Solution is registration of the study

· Selective reporting