The Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC) received the following proposal from a graduate student in Psychology: Don proposes to study the effects on the work environment when employees’ pet dogs accompany them to work. A TV station has agreed to participate in the research. Employees will participate on a voluntary basis. For the television employees volunteering to participate who do not have a dog, the city Animal Shelter has agreed to assist by providing those animals. Don will conduct interviews of the participants at the beginning and again at the close of the semester to ascertain any changes in the work environment.

What questions, if any, should the ACUC ask?

What, if any, requirements might the ACUC impose?

How will the ACUC ensure the safety of the animals involved in the research project?

Are there other approvals required in this scenario? If so, what are they?

ANIMAL CARE & USE

Deborah, a graduate student in special education, proposes to design a research project involving visually-impaired graduate students and their newly acquired Labrador retriever guide dogs.

Does the Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC) need to review this proposed research?

If so, what questions, if any, should the ACUC ask?

What, if any, requirements might the ACUC impose?

How will the ACUC ensure the safety of the Labrador retrievers?

Are there other approvals required in this scenario? If so, what are they?

Should all animals used in research be treated the same or are there reasons to treat some animals differently than others?

Are there some animals that should not be used in research?

What circumstances justify pain and suffering of experimental animals?

How should research animals be procured? How should they be housed and treated during experiments?

How should members of a university’s ACUCs be selected? What constituencies should be represented on ACUCs?

Dr. McClain, a Professor of Psychology, requires each graduate student to write a publishable research paper for her class. Dr. McClain insists that she be listed as the second author in each student manuscript submitted.

What ethical issues, if any, are evident in this scenario?

What, if any, recourse do the students have in this situation?

AUTHORSHIP, PUBLICATION & PEER REVIEW

Dr. Taylor, an expert in the area of aging and mental health, agreed to review an unpublished manuscript for a leading journal. Although Dr. Taylor has limited time outside of his teaching and research activities, he found the article so interesting that he gathered some of his colleagues together to share the findings with them.

What ethical issues, if any, are there regarding Dr. Taylor’s review of this unpublished manuscript?

Dr. Roberts conducted research on the use of computers in rural libraries. He completed an article based upon his research and submitted it to two refereed journals for publication.

What ethical issues, if any, are illustrated by Dr. Roberts’ actions?

What action, if any, should have Dr. Robert’s taken?

Two doctoral students in the College of Education assisted Dr. Atkins with his sports psychology research project. Both students worked 20-hour weeks on the project. One of the students was listed as second author of an article based upon the research findings, but the other was not.

What are the issues with student credit in this scenario?

Can one student receive credit (e.g., listed as second author) while the other does not?

What recourse, if any, does the non-credited student have in this scenario?

What are the accepted criteria for authorship in your field of research? If there are none, what should they be?

Should researchers be allowed to omit some details from the methods section of their publications until they have had time to patent or copyright their methods?

What should a researcher do if the journal that has accepted a publication will not let the researcher publish the method or results in as much detail as the researcher feels is necessary?

What should a researcher do if an undeserving author in a position of some authority demands authorship status on a paper?

What factors should be considered when making a decision to publish the results of a study in one article versus several articles?

Dr. Carter, a professor in the College of Business, reviewed an unpublished manuscript that reported findings in the area of his own research in human resource management. Dr. Carter had just finished writing his own manuscript with similar findings and is planning to submit his manuscript to a refereed journal.

What responsibility does Dr. Carter have as a peer reviewer in this scenario?

If Dr. Carter’s manuscript is accepted for publication prior to his returning the manuscript he is reviewing to the publisher, what are the possible ramifications?

What should researchers or students do if a colleague or mentor asks them to take a look at a manuscript they have not been authorized to review?

What information contained in a manuscript or proposal should reviewers be expected to check?

Should peer review be anonymous?

How can researchers who sit on committees that advise on research directions separate their own interests from the best interests of the field they are helping to shape?

What would happen if the public lost confidence in peer review and looked for other mechanisms to judge the quality and importance of research?

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

A professor of exercise science, a professor of elementary education and a professor of health policy research are collaborating on a research grant, with shared responsibilities. Mutually agreed deadlines have been set for each person’s responsibility. Due to funding issues, the health policy research faculty member began scaling back the overall research plan considerably, but due to his travel commitments, did not tell the other two faculty members until after much of their work had been completed. Now the exercise science and elementary education faculty will have to redo their work.

How might this situation have been avoided?

What role does each member of a collaborative team play in agreements and in the implementation of any changes in the plan?

Four university professors are collaborating on a three-year National Institutes of Health grant. Prior to initiating their research, the faculty members agreed to the types of equipment to be purchased for the project. A year later, Dr. Bradley, without consulting the other three faculty members, began using the equipment purchased by the grant solely for another funded project.

What problems, if any, may arise in this scenario?

If you are a member of the collaborative team and have learned about Dr. Bradley’s actions, how will you react?

Samuel, a graduate student pursuing a doctorate in political science, met with the department chair who has just appointed Samuel’s supervisory committee. Samuel is very pleased because one of his committee members is Dr. Adams, a longtime family friend. Samuel sees no reason to mention his friendship with Dr. Adams.

What responsibility, if any, does Samuel have in this situation?

What responsibility, if any, does Dr. Adams have in this situation?

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

A faculty member sold her copyright to a new book on foster care and the foster care system. She requires her graduate students to purchase her book in three different courses. Only one of the three courses includes a significant amount of content related to foster care while the other two courses have some content related to children. All of the students purchased the book.

What, if any, conflict of interest do you find in this scenario?

What recourse, if any, do the students have?

Is $10,000 or a 5 percent equity stake an appropriate level for raising concerns about possible conflicts of interest or should other values be used?

Should researchers be allowed/encouraged to profit personally from their research apart from their normal compensation?

What are appropriate mechanisms for managing financial conflicts of interest?

What are appropriate mechanisms for protecting students from a mentor’s conflict of commitment?

What are appropriate mechanisms for managing intellectual and personal conflicts of interest?

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & DATA MANAGEMENT

Frances, graduate student in counseling psychology, has completed her doctoral research while working as a research assistant for her major professor, Dr. Speak, an expert in the area of counseling psychology. Dr. Speak’s research was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The working relationship with Dr. Speak has become difficult due to Dr. Speak’s numerous speaking engagements away from the university. Frances is concerned that completing her degree is being delayed. Frances would like to change major professors but does not tell Dr. Speak.

Dr. James, also a professor in the Counseling Psychology Department, agrees to accept Frances as her doctoral student. When Dr. Speak learns that Frances has changed major professors without consulting her, she is furious. Dr. Speak tells Frances that she cannot use data collected while working on Dr. Speak’s research grant in her dissertation unless she continues as Frances’ major professor.

What are the data ownership issues here?

What can be done to rectify the situation?

In addition to data ownership, what other, if any, issues are apparent in this situation?

Sue, a graduate student specializing in clinical social work, is taking a course with Dr. Payne. Dr. Payne shared with the class some of his recent research on substance abuse. Sue would like to include some of Dr. Payne’s research data in her thesis.

Who, if anyone, should Sue contact about the use of Dr. Payne’s data?

If Sue contacts someone, what does she request?

Should research data belong to researchers rather than to research institutions? Should data recording practices be standardized to facilitate sharing and monitoring? What recording practices could be standardized?

What interpretation practices could be standardized? How does your department or faculty verify the accuracy and validity of data before its disclosure or use in grant proposals and publications?

Who should pay the cost of sharing data? Who should have access to the data?

How long should researchers be able to withhold data to allow time to protect ownership claims? How long should research data be stored?

Scott, an information studies doctoral student who has completed his research, is seldom able to meet with his major professor, Dr. Williams. When Scott does receive feedback from Dr. Williams about his dissertation, Dr. Williams provides few comments. As a result, Scott assumes that he is writing well and continues writing the draft of his dissertation over the summer.

MENTOR – TRAINEE RELATIONSHIPS

By early fall, Scott circulates the draft of the dissertation to his committee. During the meeting with Scott to discuss the draft, the committee members call for major revisions. Following the meeting, Dr. Williams tells Scott just to make minor changes and not to worry about the rest of the committee.

What, if any, are the ethical issues in this scenario?

What are Dr. Williams’ responsibilities as Scott’s mentor?

What obligations does Scott have to the other committee members?

What action, if any, should Scott take?

Professor Haywood serves as the major professor for three graduate students who assist Professor Haywood on his research project. One of the students, Aaron, is gay. When comparing notes with the other two students, Aaron learns that Professor Haywood is spending much more formal and informal time with the two other students.

What, if any, are the issues in this scenario?

What are the mentor’s responsibilities in this scenario?

If you were Aaron, what would you do in this situation?

Suzanne, a graduate student in communication disorders, would like to work with Dr. Hayes on his research. Dr. Hayes agrees to work with Suzanne as long as he is listed as the first author on all resulting publications.

What, if any, are the ethical issues in this scenario?

If you were Suzanne, what would you do in this situation?

Kim is a graduate student in program evaluation who was hired to work 20 hours per week assisting Dr. Brown on his research funded by the Department of Education. Kim is averaging 35-hour work weeks the entire semester. Kim is reluctant to complain because she desperately needs the assistantship and she does not want to offend Dr. Brown.

What recourse, if any, does Kim have?

What is Dr. Brown’s responsibility and role in this work assignment?

Can elements of the mentor-trainee relationship be reduced to a written agreement that both parties would sign at the beginning of the relationship?

What are the qualities of a good mentor? A good trainee?

What are the qualities of a good research environment and how can they be fostered?

Can good mentoring be taught, monitored, and evaluated?