1
|
Gao Y, Wilson J, Mabrouk PA. How Do Chemistry Faculty and Graduate Students Engage in Decision Making on Issues Related to Ethical and Responsible Conduct of Research Including Authorship? SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING ETHICS 2022; 28:27. [PMID: 35652979 PMCID: PMC9161763 DOI: 10.1007/s11948-022-00381-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2021] [Accepted: 02/23/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
In the United States National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have mandated training STEM doctoral students in the ethical and responsible conduct of research to improve doctoral students' ethical decision-making skills; however, little is known about the process and factors that STEM faculty and graduate students use in their decision-making. This exploratory case study examined how four triads of chemistry faculty and their doctoral students recruited from three research universities in the eastern United States engaged in ethical decision-making on issues of authorship, assignment of credit, and plagiarism. A mixed-methods approach involving the administration of an online survey consisting of three open-ended case studies followed by a think-aloud interview was utilized. Participants were found to use analogical reasoning and base their decision-making on a common core set of considerations including fundamental principles, social contracts, consequences, and discussion with an advisor, often using prior personal experiences as sources. Co-authorship did not appear to impact the doctoral students' ethical decision-making. Gender may play a role in graduate students' decision-making; female doctoral students appeared to be less likely to consider prior experiences when evaluating the vignettes. Graduate students' lack of knowledge of the core issues in the responsible conduct of research, coupled with their lack of research experience, and inability to identify the core considerations may lead them to make bad judgments in specific situations. Our findings help explain the minimal impact that the current responsible conduct of research training methods has had on graduate students' ethical decision-making and should lead to the development of more effective approaches.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yiyang Gao
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA
| | - Jasmin Wilson
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA
| | - Patricia Ann Mabrouk
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Vasilevsky NA, Hosseini M, Teplitzky S, Ilik V, Mohammadi E, Schneider J, Kern B, Colomb J, Edmunds SC, Gutzman K, Himmelstein DS, White M, Smith B, O'Keefe L, Haendel M, Holmes KL. Is authorship sufficient for today's collaborative research? A call for contributor roles. Account Res 2021; 28:23-43. [PMID: 32602379 PMCID: PMC7736357 DOI: 10.1080/08989621.2020.1779591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Assigning authorship and recognizing contributions to scholarly works is challenging on many levels. Here we discuss ethical, social, and technical challenges to the concept of authorship that may impede the recognition of contributions to a scholarly work. Recent work in the field of authorship shows that shifting to a more inclusive contributorship approach may address these challenges. Recent efforts to enable better recognition of contributions to scholarship include the development of the Contributor Role Ontology (CRO), which extends the CRediT taxonomy and can be used in information systems for structuring contributions. We also introduce the Contributor Attribution Model (CAM), which provides a simple data model that relates the contributor to research objects via the role that they played, as well as the provenance of the information. Finally, requirements for the adoption of a contributorship-based approach are discussed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nicole A Vasilevsky
- Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Institute, Oregon Health & Science University , Portland, OR, USA
| | - Mohammad Hosseini
- Institute of Ethics, School of Theology, Philosophy and Music, Dublin City University , Dublin, Ireland
| | | | | | - Ehsan Mohammadi
- School of Information Science College of Information and Communications, University of South Carolina , Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Juliane Schneider
- Clinical and Translational Science Center, Harvard University , Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Barbara Kern
- The John Crerar Library, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Julien Colomb
- Institute of Biology, Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin , Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Karen Gutzman
- Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine , Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Daniel S Himmelstein
- Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Marijane White
- Library, Oregon Health & Science University , Portland, OR, USA
| | - Britton Smith
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Edinburgh, UK
| | - Lisa O'Keefe
- Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine , Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Melissa Haendel
- Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Institute, Oregon Health & Science University , Portland, OR, USA
| | - Kristi L Holmes
- Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine , Chicago, IL, USA
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine , Chicago, IL, USA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Hosseini M, Gordijn B. A review of the literature on ethical issues related to scientific authorship. Account Res 2020; 27:284-324. [PMID: 32243214 DOI: 10.1080/08989621.2020.1750957] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
The article at hand presents the results of a literature review on the ethical issues related to scientific authorship. These issues are understood as questions and/or concerns about obligations, values or virtues in relation to reporting, authorship and publication of research results. For this purpose, the Web of Science core collection was searched for English resources published between 1945 and 2018, and a total of 324 items were analyzed. Based on the review of the documents, ten ethical themes have been identified, some of which entail several ethical issues. Ranked on the basis of their frequency of occurrence these themes are: 1) attribution, 2) violations of the norms of authorship, 3) bias, 4) responsibility and accountability, 5) authorship order, 6) citations and referencing, 7) definition of authorship, 8) publication strategy, 9) originality, and 10) sanctions. In mapping these themes, the current article explores major ethical issue and provides a critical discussion about the application of codes of conduct, various understandings of culture, and contributing factors to unethical behavior.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Hosseini
- Institute of Ethics, School of Theology, Philosophy and Music, Dublin City University , Dublin, Ireland
| | - Bert Gordijn
- Institute of Ethics, School of Theology, Philosophy and Music, Dublin City University , Dublin, Ireland
| |
Collapse
|