Public Perceptions of Scientists: Questionable Research Practices Nov 21, 2014 Ed Krug BioE room

“…fabricating more than a decade’s worth of scientific data on obesity, menopause and aging, much of it while conducting clinical research as a tenured faculty member at the University of Vermont.” d=all&_r=0 “A charge of widespread scientific fraud, involving 26 articles published in 11journals, was leveled by…” University Suspects Fraud by a Researcher Who Studied Red Wine dipak-k-das-a-university-of-connecticut-researcher.html An Unwelcome Discovery Lack of integrity leading to findings of research misconduct are increasingly in the news

Is unethical behavior in conducting research getting worse or … is there a greater awareness of its impact? scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/35543/title/Opinion--Ethics- Training-in-Science/

Actual incidence of research misconduct (FFP) is rather low – about findings published per year nationally (out of ~400 investigations) – but occurrence of at least one “questionable” practice is quite high – about 25% of all investigators (includes students, postdocs, and faculty)

Research-Practices.aspx Examples of QRP: Neglecting negative outcomes Using inappropriate statistics to support one’s hypothesis Inappropriate research design Leaving out relevant controls Inappropriate re-use of controls Removal of ‘outliers’ Conscious bias Unethical experimentation Peer review abuse

Martinson et al. (2005). Nature 435: Questionable Research Practices Survey

LK John et al. (2012). Psychol. Sci. 23: n = 2,155 Self-admission of questionable research practices by academic psychologists

Prevalence of doubting the integrity of research by others LK John et al. (2012). Psychol. Sci. 23:

“Consistent with the notion that latitude for rationalization is positively associated with engagement in QRPs, our findings showed that respondents who admitted to a QRP tended to think that their actions were defensible.” LK John et al. (2012). Psychol. Sci. 23: The ability to rationalize questionable research practices … do the ends justify the means?

tegrity jpg blago1_cst_feed_ _16_28_37_1500h 400w306.jpeg VS. “The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.” General Norman Schwarzkopf

Evolution of the AIDS pandemic involved questionable research practices

“And the Band Played On” Main Characters

Make two lists as you watch the video: Actions by individuals that seem wrong or questionable Conflicts between individuals or groups that may have had the greatest impact on facilitating the current AIDS epidemic