Abstract
Practical issues throughout scientific research can be found to have an ethical aspect. There is a gray area in which scientific error (“honest error”) may be difficult to distinguish from unacceptably poor research practice or an unethical failure to follow scientific norms. Further, there is no clear margin between deceptive practices which are widely accepted and those which must be considered fraudulent. Practical problems arise in matters of data management and presentation, authorship, publication practices, “grantsmanship”, and rights of research trainees, as well as the well-recognized areas of human and animal experimentation. Beyond the gray areas, the legal definition of research misconduct is discussed in relation to research fraud, and the latest proposed definition of the Commission on Research Integrity is briefly reviewed. It is noted that the standards of ethical research are changing. Finally, there is a comment on the idea of institutional integrity in research, and the critical role of the mentor in transmitting research standards to the next generation.
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This paper is based on a survey lecture given to research trainees and faculty by the author, and presented at the International Symposium on Scientific Integrity, Warsaw, Poland, 23 November, 1995.
Dr. Friedman is Professor of Radiology, formerly Dean for Academic Affairs, at the UCSD School of Medicine. He has been involved in research misconduct issues for more than a decade.
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Friedman, P.J. An introduction to research ethics. Sci Eng Ethics 2, 443–456 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02583931
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02583931