Transcript Pinkert presentation - Auburn University Graduate School

RESEARCH
Carl A. Pinkert, Ph.D.
Assoc VP for Research
Professor of Pathobiology
Objectives
• An overview of the research enterprise at Auburn
University
• Understand the basic research framework, and the
rules and regulations which exist to assess ethical
issues arising in research.
• Acquire a set of basic resources to apply to your
research.
Vice President for Research,
Associate Provost and President ARTF
John M. Mason Jr., PhD, PE
Research Advisory Board
Executive Director, Governmental Affairs
Sherri Fulford
Director of Public Affairs
Brian Keeter
Associate VPR
Carl A. Pinkert, PhD
Business Manager
Giovana Brannan
University Veterinarian
Laura Tambrallo, DVM
•Interface w/ ADR's and AU
Academic Affairs
•Strategic Planning/Budgets
•Interdisciplinary Research
•Univ. Core Facilities
Assistant VPR
Administration
Martha Taylor
•Sponsored Programs
•Compliance
•University Research Council
Executive Director
Huntsville Research
Center
Rodney L. Robertson, PhD
Assistant VPR (acting)
Exec. Director, ARTF
John Weete, PhD
•Auburn Research &
Technology Foundation (ARTF)
•Office of Technology Transfer
(OTT)
•Alabama Agricultural
Experiment Station
•Alabama Cooperative
Extension System
•Federal Relations
•State Relations
•Legal Counsel
•Economic Development
Executive Director
Program Development
Larry Fillmer
•Natural Resources Management &
Development Institute (NRMDI)
•Communications
•Development
•Research Advisory Board
Vision/Direction for Research
 Enhance disciplinary scholarly efforts
 Interdisciplinary and collaborative
• Linking disciplines across campus
• Assist in transforming industries and creating economic
opportunities for communities across the state, the region
and the nation
 Align AU expertise with long-term national priorities
• Energy and Environment
• Food Safety
• Health Sciences
• Transportation
• Cyber-security
• Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM)
All Sponsored Awards
160
$153
140
$124
120
$111
100
$92
$114
$106
$108
$108
$94
Other
Millions
$87
Outreach
80
Instruction
Research
60
40
20
0
01
02
03
04
05
06
FISCAL YEAR
07
08
09
10
Research Funding Opportunity
 Auburn University Internal Grants Program (IGP)
• Administered through the OVPR
• Comprehensive, coordinated, and comprehensive grants
program initiated in 2010
• 60 proposals received in the inaugural year; all 60 were
funded.
• OVPR will provide in excess of 1.6 M
• Matching support from departments, schools and colleges
will provide faculty with in excess of $3M in its inaugural
year.
• Program description can be found at:
https://fp.auburn.edu/vpr/iga/igp/default.aspx
Auburn University
Intramural Grants Program
• Four levels of competition (OVPR contribution):
 Level 1 – Seed Research/Scholarship Proposals ($2000)
Individual investigator driven projects working on a new research
program or scholarly initiative.
 Level 2 – Exploratory Interdisciplinary Research/Scholarship
Proposals ($3000) Faculty from at least two departments/schools/
colleges working on a new research program or scholarly initiative.
 Level 3 – Developmental Interdisciplinary Research/Scholarship
Proposals ($25,000-$100,000) Faculty from at least two
schools/colleges working on a new research program or scholarly
initiative.
 Level 4 – Interdisciplinary Equipment Proposals ($25,000$100,000) Faculty from at least two schools/colleges must
demonstrate need.
Office of Technology Transfer
Managing the intellectual property portfolio for Auburn University
 Ensure that university-generated and owned inventions are
made available for the public benefit
• assess, protect, market, and license intellectual properties
• promote business development
• form start-up companies
 Generate revenues for the inventor and university through
commercialization consistent with federal law (Bayh-Dole
Act)
 Ensure that the university interests are protected in
agreements and federal laws are followed
Auburn Research and Technology
Foundation (ARTF)
ARTF
 What is it?
• Non-profit (501c3) foundation formed to support the missions of Auburn University
 What does it do?
• Develops and operates the Auburn Research Park (RP)
• Facilitates greater resources and research opportunities for faculty
• Provides job opportunities for Auburn students, graduates, and others
 Future Plans
• Develop and manage a business incubator
• Manage leasing arrangements for tenants in AU buildings in the RP
• Accepts grants and contracts on behalf of AU
• Conduit for classified research
• Establishes/manages the intellectual property portfolio for AU
 Expected Outcomes
• Provides more operational flexibility to the research enterprise
• Higher funding for research; increased industry collaborative opportunities
• Increased innovation and technology development; technology transfer
• Provides ‘arms length’ protection to the university
Auburn
University
Strategic Interdisciplinary Activities
Energy and Environment
Renewable energy & biofuels
Water resources management
Advanced semiconductor
materials
Nuclear waste storage, stability
and re-use
sustainability
Advanced science innovation
and commerce laboratories
(CASIC/NIST)
Ecosystem health
Marine fisheries & aquaculture
Predictive biology & informatics
forecasting
Water, food & biofuel quality labs
AU Health Sciences Initiative
(AUHSI)
Patient health safety
Environmental health concerns
Health care related policy development
Patient treatment and wellness
Military demography
transportation
NCAT
Wireless technology
Robotics
Engine & vehicle testing & research
MRI
AU Food Systems Initiative
(AUFSI)
Best Management Practices (BMP)
Testing & detection
Engineering and multi-disciplinary
college research
Outpatient facility (eamc)
Private sector tenants
Research & technology development
Science, technology,
engineering & math
(STEM)
Multidisciplinary & interdisciplinary
programs
Develop student critical thinking
skills and interests
Create educational research tools
to enhance education
Training
Auburn Research and
Technology Foundation
(ARTF)
Research park
Collaboration with industry
Technology transfer
Classified research
opportunities
pharma
Research & development
Commercial production
Pharmaceutical engineering
Auburn University
Huntsville Research Center
Government program interface
Research contracts & grants
Technology interface
Cyber-security
Commerce
Summary
 Near-term objective – Grow Auburn
University’s research portfolio and increase
funding through contracts, grants,
investments and contributions
 Long-term objective – Measurably increase
Auburn University’s reputation as a premier
land-grant, research institution
RESEARCH WEEK 2012
April 2nd – 5th, 2012
Dr. Paula Bobrowski, Associate
Dean for Research, College of
Liberal Arts and Chair of the
Research Week 2012 Organizing
Committee
Ethics Topics for Consideration
• Research Misconduct and Plagiarism
• Conflict of Interest, Responsibilities of Authorship,
Data Management
• Scholarly Communication: Copyright and Fair Use,
Print and Digital Dissemination
• Human/Clinical Experimentation
• Animal Experimentation
• Intellectual Property, Ownership & Patenting
Research Misconduct
WHAT IS MISCONDUCT?
Research Misconduct
Federal policy on misconduct in science defines
research misconduct as “fabrication, falsification, or
plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing
research, or in reporting research results.”
http://www.ostp.gov/html/001207_3.html
How is Misconduct Defined?
• Fabrication is making up data or results and
recording or reporting them.
• Falsification is manipulating research materials,
equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data
or results such that the research is not accurately
represented in the research record.
• Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person’s
ideas, processes, results, or words without giving
appropriate credit.
www.ostp.gov/html/001207_3.html
Common Types of Plagiarism
• Copying and pasting text from websites, or
transcribing text from printed material is plagiarism.
• Translation of text from one language to another is
plagiarism.
• Unpermitted or unacknowledged use of videos,
photos, slides or images is plagiarism.
• Unacknowledged modification of text is plagiarism.
(e.g., replacing a few words using a thesaurus or rearranging
text slightly is not original scholarship).
www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~mspears/whatis.html
uwf.edu/dupserv/plagbroch.pdf
Common Types of Plagiarism
• Buying an essay from commercial sources is unethical
and can be viewed as plagiarism. So is using another
student’s work and claiming it as one’s own (this is
collusion).
• Using an essay that you wrote for another class or
purpose without getting permission from the
teacher/professor of both the current class and the
class for which the original work was used is selfplagiarism.
www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~mspears/whatis.html
uwf.edu/dupserv/plagbroch.pdf
Common Types of Plagiarism
A HUGE and pervasive misconception is that
rewriting something is not plagiarism, because
something is put in one’s own words. If the source
is not officially acknowledged, IT IS PLAGIARISM.
Copying and pasting actually accounts for only a
small percentage of plagiarism. The majority of
plagiarism is a result of text manipulation.
http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/Ronnie_
Apter/234plagiarism.htm
Research Misconduct
Statistics and Photoshop
Two key sources of potential data misrepresentation
(either deliberate or inadvertent) are statistical analyses
and image manipulation.
• 38% of papers in Nature in 2001 contained at least one statistical error
• The most common errors illustrated that authors misunderstood the
meaning of P values




Examples included over-precise P values (e.g., P = 0.002387)
Inaccurate rounding
P values listed with statistical tests not identified
Not labeling statistical method used
(Editorial, Nature Medicine 11:1, 2005; GarciaBerthou, E & Alcaraz C. BMC Medical Research
Methodology 4:13, 2004).
Research Misconduct
"No specific feature within an image may be enhanced,
obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The grouping
of images…or exposures must be made explicit by the
arrangement of the figure (e.g., using dividing lines) and in
the text of the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness,
contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they are
applied to the whole image and as long as they do not
obscure or eliminate any information present in the original.
Nonlinear adjustments (e.g., changes to gamma settings)
must be disclosed in the figure legend."
Journal of Cell Biology
Possible Penalties
Penalties at Auburn include:
A. Informal Reprimand – an oral expression of disapproval
B. Formal Reprimand – a written expression of disapproval
C. Probation – Probation is for a stated period of time
D. Suspension – Suspension excludes the student from the
University for a stated period (during this suspension the
student shall not be allowed to take any courses at this
institution either in residence or by correspondence, nor
shall credit be given for work taken at other institutions)
E. Expulsion from the University
F. Restitution
www.auburn.edu/tigercub/files/sect
ion3_2008.pdf
Conflict of Interest
Conflicts of interest can arise in research when a
researcher has a financial or other personal consideration
that ultimately interferes with their ability to conduct
research objectively.
Issues related to proper conduct and the integrity of the
scientific process overlap naturally with the concept of
conflict of interest.
Conflicts do exist – when they arise, disclosure and proper
management are the keys.
Conflict of Interest
Examples:
• Grant support from a corporate foundation.
• Consulting agreement related to ongoing research.
• Your panel review of a research grant gives you a great
project idea…what next?
Questions:
• When do you declare a conflict of interest?
• What do you do about a conflict?
• What can happen to Auburn, your department…?
Conflict of Interest and
Responsibilities of Authorship
• Who should be an author on a manuscript or grant?
• How is the order of authorship determined?
• What responsibilities does an author have?
• What steps should you follow if authorship problems
arise?
Conflict of Interest and
Responsibilities of Authorship
• Granted, there are vague and sometimes informal criteria
for determining who should be an author (and who should
be acknowledged).
• An author MUST make a significant contribution to the
work in question (experimental, technical and intellectual
contributions taken into consideration).
• Publish or perish conundrum . . .
• Not surprisingly, many journals now require declaration/
documentation of the role of each author on a manuscript.
Copyright and Fair Use:
Print and Digital Media
• What is a copyright?
• What is fair use of copyrighted materials?
• Are there differences between copyright principles for
print and digital works?
• There are relevant federal guidelines/pending legislation
• Copyright transfer options in publishing important . . .
Crews, Kenneth D., Copyright Law
and Graduate Research: New
Media, New Rights, and Your New
Dissertation,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyri
ght
Copyright and Fair Use
Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves,
only the form or manner in which they are expressed.
• Copyright law covers the creative or artistic expression
of an idea.
• Patent law covers inventions.
• Trademark law covers distinctive terms/marks/names
that are used in relation to products or services.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
Copyright and Fair Use
An employer may be the copyright holder, if the work is
considered a "work for hire". Generally, as at Auburn, if a
copyrighted work is made by an employee in the course of
that employment, the copyright is automatically owned by
the employer as a "Work for Hire."
• In most of the world, the default length of copyright is the life of the
author plus 50 or 70 years.
• In the US, the term for most existing works is life of the author plus 70
years (“corporate authorship” for 120 years after creation or 95 years
after publication)
• If published before 1978, protection is 95 years from publication.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
1998 Copyright Term Extension Act
Copyright and Fair Use
In 17 U.S.C. § 107
The fair use of a copyrighted work. . . for purposes such as
criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including
multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or
research, is not an infringement of copyright.
In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair
use the factors to be considered shall include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Purpose and character of the use,
Nature of the copyrighted work,
Amount and substantiality of the portion used, and
Effect of the use upon the potential market for/value of copyrighted work.
COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USE
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) prohibits the
manufacture, importation, or distribution of devices
intended to circumvent rights/access to copyrighted works.
Educational use is generally regarded as "fair use,” but
international restrictions vary.
Current legislation appears to allow the following under classroom
situations:
• Copy and distribution of articles for use in class
• Podcasts or other audio in a classroom situation
However,
• You cannot cite/place works in a textbook without permission, as this
would not be "fair practice".
• Similarly, one does not have the right to photocopy textbooks or copy
course CDs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
Data Management
Research recordkeeping (NIH view)
1. Good record keeping is necessary for data analysis, publication,
collaboration, peer review, and other research activities.
2. Good record keeping is required to meet the accepted policies and
standards for the conduct of good science.
3. Good record keeping is necessary to support intellectual property
claims.
4. Good record keeping can help defend you against false
allegations of research misconduct.
5. Good record keeping is important in the care of human subjects.
www1.od.nih.gov/oir/sourcebook/ethic
-conduct/RECORDKEEPING.pdf
Starting Your Graduate Research and
Scholarship Efforts
• Research/Scholarship experience
• Research/Scholarship interest
• What else has been done
• Who do you know
Compliance
• Federally Mandated Concerns
– IACUC (vertebrate animals, assurances, etc)
– IRB (are human subjects involved)
– Institutional Biosafety (IBC)
– Risk Management and Safety
– Radiation Safety
• Consortium agreements, proprietary information,
select agents, resource sharing, etc.
Need Assistance?
• Peers, colleagues
• Professors
• Departmental administrators/mentors/ graduate
committees
• Your Associate Dean for Research and/or
Graduate Studies
• Your Dean, the Graduate School and central
administration
THANK YOU!
Acknowledgements
Portions of this presentation were adapted from a course
outline “Ethics and Professional Integrity in Research in
Biomedical Sciences (IND501)” team taught at the University
of Rochester between 2001 and 2008 and “Introduction to
Research” (VBMS7010) at Auburn University since 2006.
I thank D.A. Pearce, M.M. Taylor and F.F. Bartol for their
assistance, consideration and permissions where appropriate
– in preparing material for AU graduate students.
A primary reference for further background:
F. Macrina, 2005. Scientific Integrity: An Introductory Text
with Cases, 3rd ed. ASM Press.