Kl. Fields et Ar. Price, PROBLEMS IN RESEARCH INTEGRITY ARISING FROM MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE OWNERSHIP OF RESEARCH, Academic medicine, 68(9), 1993, pp. 190000060-190000064
Citations number
5
Categorie Soggetti
Medicine Miscellaneus","Education, Scientific Disciplines
Many allegations of scientific misconduct result from activities that
are perceived by the complainants as the ''theft '' of ideas, experime
ntal results, or other intellectual property. The authors' thesis is t
hat many of these allegations originate in misconceptions about the ow
nership of publicly supported scientific research. Some universities a
nd medical schools may have their own codes for authorship, and journa
ls and professional societies have codes or guidelines. In the NIH int
ramural programs, research data are considered to be the property of t
he institutes, not the individual researchers. In contrast, the traini
ng and experience of most scientists lead them to consider research da
ta as being theirs. The paper discusses the origins of this attitude t
oward data and the ways that the structures of university laboratories
and training programs lead to confusion and misunderstandings of rese
archers' ''rights'' to data. Also, emotional and personality factors o
ften complicate these issues and lead to confrontations. Other misconc
eptions widely held among researchers: the false concepts of ''my gran
t'' and the ''co-principal'' investigator, ideas about who is and is n
ot qualified to be an author, and ideas about sharing data. The author
s emphasize the importance of scientifically literate legal advisers a
nd the necessity for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and prof
essors to understand their institutions' and grantors' guidelines and
their obligations as scientists. At the heart of these obligations at
all levels of research is honesty.