Responsible Conduct in Biomedical Research (Fall)
Weekly outline
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Welcome to Responsible Conduct in Biomedical Research BIO-664
Since the fall of 2014, we are trying to consolidate a 9 week course of 2 hours, into a 2 full day course.
Please find here the topics, assignments and resources - but do not mind the "week" to which they are assigned.
Your participation will make or break this course. It would be very important for you to read the assignments, and browse the resources in preparation for a class.
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“What people do is they count papers, and they look at the prestige of the journal in which the research is published, and they see how may grant dollars scientists have, and if they don’t have funding, they don’t get promoted,” Dr. Fang said. “It’s not about the quality of the research.”
Dr. Ness likens scientists today to small-business owners, rather than people trying to satisfy their curiosity about how the world works. “You’re marketing and selling to other scientists,” she said. “To the degree you can market and sell your products better, you’re creating the revenue stream to fund your enterprise.”
...With all this pressure on scientists, they may lack the extra time to check their own research — to figure out why some of their data doesn’t fit their hypothesis, for example. Instead, they have to be concerned about publishing papers before someone else publishes the same results.“You can’t afford to fail, to have your hypothesis disproven,” Dr. Fang said. “It’s a small minority of scientists who engage in frank misconduct. It’s a much more insidious thing that you feel compelled to put the best face on everything.”
New York Times April 16 2012 A Sharp Rise in Retractions Prompts Calls for Reform
In this kind of research environment, how can we be responsible scientists?
Looking forward to an interactive semester!
all original materials are CC-BY-SA 4.0 - with the exception of some scientific articles, which may not be open access and have their copyright assigned by publishers
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where to find research integrity resources at EPFL
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UCSD's site on evidence based research ethics education.
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Introduction to the course, overview of ethics
Assignment of projects
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Record keeping
HOMEWORK: read the Millikan Case in the READING: Record Keeping folder below
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Misconduct, Whistle-blowing
HOMEWORK: Please read the Hwang case New York Times article (one of 2 is fine) before class. It is in the folder READING: Misconduct/ Hwang Case.
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Authorship and Reviewer Process, Confidentiality
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how does one share big data? links on current solutions
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Open access and other issues
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"This Nature web debate consists of 22 articles of analyses and perspectives from leading scientists, publishers and other stakeholders to address these questions"
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Competition, Conflict of Interest, Industry and Academia
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Intellectual Property, Patents and Technology Transfer
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Typical guidelines from Tech Transfer Offices
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Protection of Human Subjects, Privacy and Ownership (genetic data banks, cell, and organ donation)
HOMEWORK: Please read the Quinn paper. It is in the folder READING: Human Subjects (Quinn_HIV_I).
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National Public Radio's Radiolab video/emission on HeLa cells
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The EPFL Human Research Ethics Committee's (HREC) mission is to ensure that non-invasive human research projects conducted at EPFL are designed in compliance with the fundamental ethical principles of respect for persons, beneficence and justice and the principles deriving therefrom, such as consideration of benefits and risks, informed consent of participants, privacy and data
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Science and the Public
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End of 2011, dual-use dilemma and censorship
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What can we learn from how the (academic) scientific system works today to understand what could be in the future?
