Jeffrey Robens, PhD Senior Research Consultant

Education Group Leader

Kyushu University Department of Agriculture

Session 4 – Ethics

Kyushu University

26 June 2014

Seminar series

June 5 Effective presentations

June 12 Reviewing the literature

June 19 Academic publishing

June 26 Research and publication ethics

July 3 Effective writing

July 10 Manuscript structure

July 17 Communicating with journals

July 24 Peer review and revisions

Today’s presentation

June 5 Effective presentations

June 12 Reviewing the literature

June 19 Academic publishing

June 26 Research and publication ethics

July 3 Effective writing

July 10 Manuscript structure

July 17 Communicating with journals

July 24 Peer review and revisions

Research ethics

Section 1

Research ethics Ethical treatment of animals

Housing

Kept in humane conditions

• Not over-crowded • Enough food and water • Climate controlled

Experiments

Avoid unnecessary suffering

• Given anesthesia when possible • Not subjected to unnecessary

pain

Research ethics Ethical treatment of humans

Informed consent

Participants in a study need to be informed of the:

• Study objectives • Potential benefits or risks involved • Confidentiality

This is usually written informed consent

Templates: http://www.who.int/rpc/research_ethics/informed_consent/en/

Research ethics Data manipulation

Never

Fabricate data Move data on

a graph

Alter images Hide bad

results

Research ethics Altering images

What kind of changes can be made to images?

Overall brightness and contrast, as long as it does not obscure or remove information from the original image

Rossner and Yamada. J Cell Biol. 2004; 166: 11–15.

You cannot:

• Enhance brightness/contrast of only part of an image • Cannot crop out/remove ‘unwanted’ artefacts

Research ethics Reusing images

Can you reuse images/data?

In the same paper?

In a follow-up paper?

In a review article?

Can you use the control image from Figure 1 in Figure 3?

Can you use data published in one paper in a new research paper?

Can you use a published image in a review article you are writing?

NO!

NO!

Yes

Research ethics Reusing images

You can use a published image in a review article…

Subscription article

• You have to request permission from publisher

• Cite the original source

Open access article

• You have to request permission from corresponding author

• Cite the original source

Research ethics ‘Salami publishing’

You cannot divide one larger paper into two or more smaller ones

• Makes readers think that these are two independent studies

• Relevant information from one paper not available to reader of other paper

• Interferes with the critical evaluation of the study

One larger paper will have more impact for the field (and more citations!)

Multiple submission

Section 2

Coverage and Staffing Plan

Multiple submission

You can only submit your manuscript to one journal at a time

Never submit to multiple journals hoping your manuscript is accepted somewhere

Coverage and Staffing Plan

Multiple submission

You can only submit to another journal if:

Submitting to a new journal

You have been rejected from the first journal

All authors agree to formally withdraw the submission from the first journal

Activities

Submission activity

You have just submitted your abstract to a conference, but now you want to also submit your manuscript to a journal. What should you do?

1. Withdraw your abstract from the conference first, and then submit to the journal.

2. First attend the conference, and then submit to the journal (it’s okay after the conference is over).

3. Freely submit to both…the conference is not the same as a journal, right?

Authorship

Section 3

Authorship Why is authorship

important?

Gives credit to those who deserve it!

But also determines who is responsible/ accountable for the work being published

Authorship Four criteria

for authorship

1. Significantly involved in study design, data collection/analysis

2. Writing and revising the manuscript

3. Approval of final version

4. Responsible for the content (accuracy and integrity)

http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

Authorship Who can be an author?

During your study, have had help from 4 people:

Supervisor

Collaborator

Technician

Post-doc

Study design, data analysis, writing paper

Provided materials, reviewed paper

Data collection, reviewed paper

Study design, data collection/analysis, writing paper

Authorship Who can be an author?

During your study, have had help from 4 people:

Supervisor

Collaborator

Technician

Post-doc

Study design, data analysis, writing paper

Provided materials, reviewed paper

Data collection, reviewed paper

Study design, data collection/analysis, writing paper

Authorship Who cannot be an author?

Those who only:

• provided materials

• helped with data collection

• revised/edited the paper

Collaborators*

Technicians

Colleagues

*Collaborators who actively participated in the study (the design, data collection/analysis, and writing of the paper) do qualify as an author

Authorship Acknowledgements

Nugraha et al. Biomaterials. 2011; 32: 6982–6994.

Thank those who have made positive contributions

Funding agencies

Authorship Gift/ghost authorship

Making someone an author when they do not deserve it (friends, colleagues, etc.)

Gift authorship

• Try to make paper more prestigious by adding a ‘big name’ • Adding the department head to every paper from their department • Thanking someone for a contributed material

Not making someone an author when they do deserve it

Ghost authorship

• Hide conflict of interest (e.g., company employee) • If someone did not conduct the study, but wrote the paper (e.g.,

‘ghost writer’)

Authorship Authorship contributions

Some journals require you to state what each author contributed to the study in your manuscript

http://www.pnas.org/site/authors/journal.xhtml

Vedula et al. PNAS. 2012; 109: 12974–12979.

First and senior authors contributed

at every stage

Authorship Authorship order

Senior author First author Co-authors

Did most of the work Wrote most of the paper

Did some of the work Wrote some of the paper

Did some of the work Wrote some of the paper (approved final)

Authorship Co-first authors

How does this affect you?

Jeffrey Robens*, Andrew Jackson*, Michael Pack, Melanie de Souza, Sean Mathai, William Yajima, Thomas da Costa

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Citations/reputation (Robens et al., 2014) Andrew Jackson?

How much did you contribute?

You did not do most of the work, but only half of it

Activities

Authorship activity 1

You have finished your research project. Because the post-doc in your lab needs publications, he offers to write the manuscript for you. Can he be an author?

1. No! He didn’t do any of the research!

2. Yes. Although he didn’t do the research, he will contribute to data interpretation and writing of the manuscript; 2/3 criteria is enough for co-authorship.

3. Yes. But because he wrote the paper, he should be the first author.

Authorship activity 2

You performed the experiments and wrote the paper. However, the paper was submitted after graduation. The revisions were done by the new student in the lab—can they be a co-author on your paper?

1. Yes. Although they were not involved in the first stage, they were involved in the research and writing during the second stage. That is sufficient.

2. No! They had nothing to do with the original project—an acknowledgement is enough.

Conflicts of interest

Section 4

Conflicts of interest

Professional, financial, or personal relationships that may bias your research

Declare any conflicts of interest to the journal

Disclose all sources of funding

Disclose all personal and financial relationships

Declaration of the role of the study sponsor:

• study design

• collection, analysis, and interpretation of data

• writing of the manuscript

Conflicts of interest Example

You are doing research on a new drug and…

• Your brother works at the drug company

• The drug company funded the research

• You own stock in the drug company

• You own stock in a competing drug company

Conflicts of interest Conflict of Interest form

Activities

Conflicts of interest activity

You are an active member of an animal rights group and just finished writing a review of slaughterhouses in Japan. Do you have any conflicts of interest?

1. No! My personal beliefs have nothing to do with my professional evaluation of slaughterhouses.

2. No! Conflicts of interest are only related to financial gain.

3. Yes. My personal beliefs may bias my evaluation of slaughterhouses, so I should disclose them.

Plagiarism

Section 5

Customer Service Plagiarism

Makes readers think others’ words or ideas are your own

Plagiarism

Copying published text

Stating ideas of someone else without citing the source

Customer Service Plagiarism

Copying text into your manuscript that you have written and published before

Self-plagiarism

Violates copyright

Makes readers think you are presenting something new

Customer Service Plagiarism Proper citations

You should usually cite primary research articles

• Cite review articles only in the Introduction regarding general topics (for further reading)

• Cite primary articles regarding specific information/results

If you read about an interesting study in a review article:

• Do not cite that review article • Read the original study (additional information?) • Read the entire paper, not just the abstract!

Customer Service Plagiarism

Expressing published ideas using different words

Paraphrasing

Tips on paraphrasing:

1. Write about the text a couple hours later without looking at the source

2. Verbally explain ideas to a colleague 3. Summarize in a flowchart (e.g., methods)

Customer Service Plagiarism Good paraphrasing

24. Llovet at al. N Engl J Med. 2008; 359: 378 –390.

“This trial shows that sorafenib improves overall survival by nearly 3 months in patients with advanced liver cancer.”

Sorafenib improves survival by almost 3 months in patients with advanced liver cancer.24

Sorafenib has been shown to improve the survival of liver cancer patients. 24

Too similar!

Activities

Paraphrasing activity 1

Please choose which sentence below is the best paraphrase for this sentence:

“After application of the oil-based cream, we observed a 78% reduction in rashes caused by plants, but no reduction in those caused by animals.”

1 2 3

Paraphrasing activity 1

Please choose which sentence below is the best paraphrase for this sentence:

“After application of the oil-based cream, we observed a 78% reduction in rashes caused by plants, but no reduction in those caused by animals.”

1. Oil-based creams have been found to be more effective in reducing rashes caused by plants than those caused by animals (Robens et al., 2013).

Best!

Paraphrasing activity 1

Please choose which sentence below is the best paraphrase for this sentence:

“After application of the oil-based cream, we observed a 78% reduction in rashes caused by plants, but no reduction in those caused by animals.”

2. After application of oil-based creams, Robens et al. (2013) found a 78% decrease in rashes that were caused by plants. However, they did not see a decrease in rashes caused by animals.

Too similar

Paraphrasing activity 1

Please choose which sentence below is the best paraphrase for this sentence:

“After application of the oil-based cream, we observed a 78% reduction in rashes caused by plants, but no reduction in those caused by animals.”

3. Rashes caused by plants are easier to treat than rashes caused by animals (Robens et al., 2013).

Not accurate

Paraphrasing activity 2

You would like to use the following text in your manuscript. Properly paraphrase this sentence to avoid plagiarism.

“We found that students that preferred team sports, such as baseball and basketball, scored 6.9% higher on entrance exams than students who preferred video games.”

Students that prefer team sports rather than video games scored higher on entrance exams.

Thank you!

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Jeffrey Robens: jrobens@edanzgroup.com