Big Little Lies: Confronting Everyday Academic Misconduct

Abstract: Recently, the media has publicized major research misconduct of physicians and scientists, including insufficient conflicts of interest disclosure, data fabrication, and sexual misconduct. While these represent the most egregious infractions and erode public trust, many forms of research misconduct happen in pervasive, subtle ways, including authorship erasure/misappropriation and misuse of data. When these occur, there are no standardized ways to identify and report these instances, or consensus about consequences, resulting in patterns of unchecked bad behavior. In this workshop, we will present real-world cases including the following:

1. Authorship Erasure: A researcher has done substantial work on a project and without their knowledge, is excluded from attribution in subsequent work.
2. Authorship Misappropriation: A researcher did not verify the participation, edits, or final approval on a manuscript prior to submission.
3. Behavioral Misconduct: A collaborator or PI routinely lies to or mistreats their colleagues and trainees without crossing obvious lines of harassment.
4. Retractions: A researcher submits work for which retraction is later suggested by subsequent work, but they do not retract.
5. Data Misuse: A researcher has IRB and/or a data-use agreement for one scope of work, but then uses the data outside of the initial scope.

We will engage a diverse interdisciplinary audience with real-life cases to generate strategies to better identify, report, and enforce consequences of insidious research misconduct. Audience members will participate in a collaborative dialogue examining the role of individuals, academic institutions, and other regulatory bodies in addressing, preventing, and penalizing academic misconduct.