Scientific research is a quest for the truth. But sometimes this noble mission can get sidetracked.
One of the most recent high-profile cases of research misconduct involved Woo Suk Hwang, a scientist from South Korea who claimed to have cloned human embryos and created 12 stem-cell lines. The once-lauded researcher was indicted in 2006 on charges of fraud, embezzlement and violation of South Korea's bioethics law and was dismissed from the university where he worked.
“I'm convinced more and more that scientists face the same pressures as anyone else,” said Tom Powers, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Delaware and co-director of the Science, Ethics, and Public Policy program administered by the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. “Anything that happens in society can happen in the lab. There are pressures to get noticed, to publish and get funding. Honor and fame apply in the lab, just as they do in the board room, at church and elsewhere in life.”
Powers and UD colleagues Mark Greene, assistant professor of philosophy, and William Ullman, professor of marine and earth studies, recently were awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to pilot a novel ethics education project for graduate students in science and engineering at UD.
Called “Research and Integrity in Science and Engineering (RAISE),” the 18-month pilot project is designed to increase student awareness of research ethics through small-group discussions on a range of issues, from the falsification of experimental results, to plagiarism, conflicts of interest in industry-funded research, improper attribution of authorship, and the vulnerability of junior researchers in reporting misconduct.
A key outcome of the project will be a code of research ethics and integrity for UD graduate students, built “from the bottom up,” Powers said.
“A lot of research policy initiatives are 'top down,'” Powers noted, “but the question we are posing to students is what would the researchers' code of integrity be if it was driven from the 'bottom up"' What do our students--our future research leaders--think the rules should be" As they ponder the issues, our hope is that ethics will become socialized into their practice of science and engineering and serve them throughout their careers.”
In the initial phase of the project set for this spring, six graduate students from research groups at UD will be trained as “ethics educators” by Powers, Greene and Ullman in a new graduate course in research integrity. These student educators then will lead peer groups of graduate students, organized by discipline, in discussions of research ethics during the fall 2008 semester.
In the spring of 2009, the students' codes of ethics will be reviewed by the project leaders and compared with the expectations of the faculty and administration. A summary document will be presented to the provost and the vice provost for research and graduate studies as a white paper for a University-wide code for graduate students conducting research in science and engineering.
Powers and his colleagues bring unique strengths to the instruction and management of the project.
Greene has helped develop and conduct summer workshops in research ethics for undergraduates at the University of Delaware, working with graduate student facilitators.
Ullman periodically presents seminars on research ethics to graduate students in the College of Marine and Earth Studies. During the summer, he gives "Honor and Integrity" seminars for undergraduate and graduate researchers at UD, including students involved in the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. Ullman also is a member of UD's Committee on Responsible Conduct of Research and serves as an adviser to new faculty in the University's mentoring program.
The RAISE project will be organized by the Science, Ethics and Public Policy (SEPP) program, which, as part of its mission, seeks to serve students, faculty and the research community in addressing issues of research integrity. The program is targeted to ultimately evolve into a center for ethics at UD.
While it has been estimated that under 0.02 percent of all published scientific research is demonstrably fraudulent, more common is conduct that might charitably be interpreted as “research misbehavior,” according to Powers.
“The Korean stem-cell research was blatant, but a lot of conduct issues are much more subtle--there are a lot of gray areas--and you don't want to fall into those mistakes accidentally,” Powers said.
“Being able to include a course in research integrity on their resumes puts our students at an advantage,” he noted.
The RAISE project's campus partners include the Research and Graduate Studies Office; College of Arts and Sciences; College of Engineering; College of Marine and Earth Studies; Delaware Biotechnology Institute; Science, Ethics and Public Policy Program; Delaware NSF-Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR); and the Delaware Interdisciplinary Ethics Program.
For more information, visit the SEPP Web site at [http://sepp.dbi.udel.edu] or contact Powers at (302) 831-3229.