Despite ongoing disagreement about what kinds of evidence are most valuable to education, there continues to be an increasing push to make a narrow group of scientific methodologies the basis of educational policy and practice. This has created a growth in the use of randomised control trials (RCTs), which are considered an exemplary example of…

In order to assess the status of retraction notices for publications involving research misconduct, we collected and analyzed information from the Office of Research Integrity website. This site lists confirmed instances of misconduct in research supported by the National Institutes of Health. Over a 10-year period, 200 publications derived from…

Human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research has sparked incredible scientific and public excitement, as well as significant controversy. hESCs are pluripotent, which means, in theory, that they can be differentiated into any type of cell found in the human body. Thus, they evoke great enthusiasm about potential clinical applications. They are…

After premature closures in 2004 of biomedical human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention trials involving sex workers in Africa and Asia, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention (AVAC) undertook consultations to establish better participatory guidelines for such trials in order to address…

Decision making is influenced by multiple factors, especially when approaching controversial socio-scientific issues, such as stem cell research. In the present study, we used qualitative data from 132 college student papers in a biotechnology course to investigate how students made decisions about stem cell research issues. Students indicated…

Bioethics--the study of ethical issues in science and medicine--has grown to become a significant academic and service-oriented discipline with its own research centers, conferences, journals, and degree programs. As these issues have moved to the center of public debate, the law has assumed an increasingly important place in the discipline of…

Examination of how biomedical scientists cite the published work of others in their own journal articles revealed that subjects tended to summarize or generalize others' articles and used few direct quotations and little paraphrasing. The results suggest ethical and instructional questions relating to which citation forms should be taught to…

The agencies listed in this document are amending the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, which was published in the Federal Register on June 18, 1991, to change all references to the Office for Protection from Research Risks (OPRR) to the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP); revise the footnote found at the end of…

Graduate courses in scientific integrity typically cover responsible authorship, conflict of interest, handling of misconduct, data management, and treatment of human and animal subjects. Carefully prepared and used case studies are an appropriate teaching method. (SK)

Summarizes and comments on three presentations relative to the life sciences and medicine given at the October 1995 working symposium of the Project on Conflict of Interest in University-Industry Research Relationships and included in this issue. Discusses the work of medical researcher David Blumenthal, political scientist Mark Frankel, and…

Undergraduate students in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Alabama, Mobile, are required to take a course entitled "Issues in Biomedical Sciences," designed to increase students' awareness about bioethical questions and issues concerning research integrity. This paper describes the main features of this…

The regulation (voluntary and involuntary) of animal care and use throughout history in research and teaching is reviewed. The role of several organizations concerned with various aspects of animal quality, care, and use is discussed. (BH)

A survey of 549 biomedical trainees (graduate and postdoctoral students, medical students, residents, fellows) investigated training in research ethics, observation of scientific misconduct, and willingness to select, omit, or fabricate data to win a grant or publish a paper. The efficacy of current ethics instruction is questioned. (Author/MSE)

This monograph contains 13 papers on the ethics of planning, conducting, and reporting research in health sciences education. It includes four background papers and nine perspective papers. The titles are: (1) "The Imperative for Ethical Conduct in Scientific Inquiry" (Steve M. Dorman); (2) "Fundamental Principles of Ethical…