Dr. Sundar Christopher [email protected]

Dr. Sundar [email protected]

Professional Ethics and Responsible Research Conduct

(for graduate students and research professionals)

mailto:[email protected]


The Big One - Plagiarism• Plagiarism simply means copying someone

else’s stuff – including words• Never cut and paste from text• Simply moving a few words around is a no-no

as well• There are a lot of software programs that can

check matches between your text and others• So beware!



Story• Advisor gives student leading edge recent paper• Student copies several portions of text from paper for a

class report• Professor for class gets excited about student’s paper• Professor walks into advisor’s office and exclaims: This

is a fantastic class report by your student• Advisor tells professor that this was from a paper that

he gave student• Student expelled from program for plagiarism



Story continued• This was an international student’s first year.• However the University followed strict

guidelines.• How can Professors avoid such a problem?



Sign a form• Students do not realize that when they entered the University

they signed several forms that talk about professional ethics.• Professors can remind students for each course by asking them to

sign a honor statement: I promise or affirm that I will not at any time be involved in cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, misrepresentation, or any other form of academic misconduct as outlined in the [University Name] Student Handbook while I am enrolled as a student at [University Name]. I understand that violating this promise will result in penalties as severe as indefinite suspension from [University Name].

• Professors can also discuss professional ethics as part of the introductory lecture.



Plagiarism - Proposals• If you are the Principal Investigator then you have

to take full responsibility.• You cannot have excuses such as: “I did not know

that the material that my co-investigator sent me was from someone else’s text.”

• Funding agencies have severe punitive measures for plagiarism.



Story• PI writes a major proposal and is rushed for time.• He has several co-investigators.• PI asks a co-I for some material related to proposal.• Co-I sends portions of a dissertation from another University.• PI assumes that the co-I wrote the section.• PI submits proposals.• Agency sends proposal for review.• Reviewer happens to be the author of the dissertation.• Reviewer contacts agency about plagiarism issue.• Agency contacts PI and debars PI from writing proposals for 3 years.

University suspends PI from writing any proposal or advising students.



Possible Solutions• Know your co-investigators.• Never assume that the material that you are provided

is written from scratch.• Double check everything.• If you run into issues, talk to your Office of Sponsored

Programs personnel starting from the Vice President of Research.

• Compliance officers in your organization are there to help.

• Full disclosure always helps.



Data

• Do not fabricate data.• Though tempting, it is not a good idea to fit a data

point into a preconceived hypothesis or solution.• Do not show selective data.



Example: Correlation coefficients

• While it is tempting to make all points line up on a 1:1 line and only show those points, often times the fun science is in those outliers.



Responsibility• Write your research papers clearly and in a

fashion that someone from another continent can replicate.

• If you clearly explain your data, methods, and analysis, then there is no perception of fabrication.



Authorship• It’s a sticky subject, but know the ground rules that are

established by your advisor or team lead.• If you are an advisor, tell your student or postdoc who will be the

first author on papers and define your criteria for establishing authorship and FIRST authorship.

• Remember that your advisor has spent a lot of time and energy building a lab or a team. Therefore, either work within the established ground rules or find another advisor.

• Never complain after the fact that you did not know the rules of engagement.

• Ask at the beginning of your graduate career.• Better safe than sorry.



What if my advisor wants me to cheat on research

• On rare occasion, it is possible that your advisor wants you to avoid the principles of professional ethics.

• Make sure that you are not making a mountain of a molehill. There may be a communication gap between your advisor and you.



If they want fabrication• You need to talk to you mentor if you have one.• This is a difficult subject. Request a private

meeting with the advisor’s supervisor.• If you are not comfortable with this approach,

then you have to involve someone really higher up the chain such as the Office of Vice President of Research.



Collaborations• While scientific collaborations can be fun and

exciting, you must know the rules of engagement before hand.

• If you are writing a joint paper, who will be first author? Establish this first so there are no misgivings later on.

• Establish timelines and work diligently to solve problems and finish assignments on time.



Who should be coauthor?• Should the one who gives you data be a coauthor? They

know the data best. They spent time and money making these measurements or building these models. Ask them to write the data section and provide quality controlled/assured data. Ask them to provide input to entire paper

• Offer coauthorship to people who contribute.• List of authors should reflect who contributed the most to

least.• All else being equal, after a few authors, the remaining on

the list are alphabetized. Make sure you know such rules of engagement.



Conflict of interest• Do not subcontract part of a federally funded

grant to your brother’s company.• This is actual and perceived financial gain and a

conflict of interest.• Watch out for personal, professional, and political

conflicts of interests.



Acknowledgement• It is your responsibility to tell everyone orally and/or in

written form (peer reviewed forms) if you received funding to do this research.

• If you are doing global warming research and if you received funds from a wind energy company to perform that research, you have an ethical responsibility to state it upfront in your paper.

• If you are doing research on global warming and receiving funds from coal industry, the same applies.

• You get the point.• Full disclosure is a good thing. You can sleep well at night.



Moonlighting (Consulting)• Example: If you are a Professor who is doing research

as part of your University functions, consulting on the side is not necessarily a bad thing.

• Universities have guidelines on how many hours of consulting you can perform per month.

• Fill out the appropriate paperwork with appropriate signatures so you are on the up and up!

• Again, knowing the rules of engagement is the key thing.



Who owns you – Patents and such?

• You need to know the rules of engagement about patents. If you are a University employee, there are strict guidelines on who owns what.

• Talk to the appropriate offices on campus.



Final Slide• You cannot anticipate every single event that will

happen in your research career.• When in doubt take a step back and re-evaluate.• Know the rules and regulations.• Talk to mentors, peers, and the organizational folks

who are good at this type of thing.• Above all, use common sense.• Like everything else – communicate.• And as painful as it may be – attend a workshop on

research conduct on your campus :)


Documents

Dr. Sundar Christopher [email protected]