Ethics Booklet Being Issued to Young Scientists

In the wake of a series of disclosures about research misconduct, the National Academy of Sciences issued a booklet Friday on laboratory ethics for young scientists and plans to circulate it on 120 college campuses.

The 22-page publication is designed to guide graduate students in the ethical conduct of scientific research and addresses fundamental issues of data-reporting accuracy, giving proper credit for discoveries and maintaining integrity at the laboratory bench.

Frank Press, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said Friday that the problem of misconduct in scientific research is small but that it has received attention recently in the media and before Congress.

“There is a perception that it is a serious issue,” Press said. “Therefore, it has to be addressed.”

The booklet cites fraud--the deliberate misrepresentation of research findings--as the gravest violation of science ethics, and it notes that “there is good reason for believing the incidence of fraud in science to be quite low.”

“Science could not be the successful institution it is if fraud were common,” the booklet says, noting that most research findings will be verified or disproved by the work of other researchers.

Failure to give credit for previous discoveries also distorts the scientific process, the booklet says. It cautions young researchers that “scientists who fail to acknowledge the ideas of others tend to find themselves excluded from the fellowship of their peers.”

In addition, the booklet gives advice to researchers who report the misconduct of others.

“Whistle-blowing is rarely an easy route” and, in the past, has hurt careers of accusers, the book says. It recommends that whistle-blowers confront suspects in private before taking the issues public.

“Many problems can be solved in this fashion without involving a larger forum,” the book says.

But it says also that universities and science organizations now are establishing formal procedures to protect the accuser and the accused.

In recent months, accusations of misconduct have been aired in hearings before Congress, and at least one whistle-blower has reported that her career has been seriously harmed by her efforts to uncover misconduct. Two National Institutes of Health scientists now work as investigators on a congressional committee that oversees federally supported science research.

A National Institutes investigation has resulted in one researcher’s being accused of plagiarizing the work of another scientist. And there have been published reports that a number of cases of misconduct still are under investigation by the agency’s experts.