Reflections - the researcher's commitment to the ethics of science / Bracha Reger

What are the causes of cheating in science, and can they be prevented?

Being a scientist or researcher is considered a very prestigious profession, and there is some justification for that. A real scientist is a creative person with imagination and courage who has scientific truth at his feet. Compared to people engaged in other creative professions, such as artists and writers, scientists gain the advantage that society funds their desire to investigate a certain topic through research grants, although not before the research plan is examined and approved. Also, apart from the research, the researchers enjoy academic freedom that allows them to research any topic that interests them. In addition to studies commissioned by industrial companies, governments and the like.

However, if the research is independent and if it is invited, in any case the scientists are obliged to observe the laws of scientific ethics. The reliability and integrity of the scientists themselves, the conduct of the research according to the accepted laws and the reliability of the published results are an inescapable condition. Indeed, it is common to think that credibility and scientific integrity are embedded in every scientist since they were students.

An example of a scientist who sticks to his scientific truth is Professor Dan Shechtman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2012. Professor Shechtman continued to believe in his discovery, the existence of quasi-periodic crystals, for months, despite the sometimes mocking criticisms of the scientific community. Finally, the truth prevailed and he got the recognition he deserved.

However, not all scientists comply with the required ethical code. Breaking the rules of ethics in scientific research can manifest itself in deliberate cheating and lying, copying from existing publications, hiding data, changing results, or disobeying laws on animal or human experiments.

There are two extreme views regarding unethical research. According to one, if the research is influential, the act of cheating will cause damages, but will soon be discovered by internal sources of that laboratory, or because other researchers will not be able to reproduce the findings. The other opinion claims that if the research is not important, it will not cause any real damage anyway and the only problem will be that it takes up space in the scientific journals.

A striking example of the first case is the so-called "Smerlin case" from 1974. Dr. Summerlin claimed that he could transplant tissues without a reaction by the immune system. For proof, he transplanted skin from a black mouse to a white mouse. The research was carried out by Summerlin at the Sloan Kettering Center in New York, a well-known institute for cancer research. Summerlin was invited to the office of the director of the institute, Dr. Robert Good, to show him the transplanted mice. One of the spectators at that meeting noticed that the black spots did not match what is expected from skin grafts. When he splashed alcohol on the spots, the spots disappeared and thus the scam was discovered. It turned out that Summerlin drew the "implant" with a black marker. Of course, Summerlin was immediately fired from his prestigious position.

Despite the publication of the "Summerlin case" and other similar scandals, the phenomenon of breaking the accepted ethics rules only grew stronger. At the end of the 80s, policy makers in the USA began activities towards the establishment of an official institution that would deal with teaching and education in the practice of ethics in research. In an examination carried out twenty years later, it became clear that the situation had worsened. In a survey done by the journal PNAS, it became clear that 2,047 articles in the life sciences were removed from the journal by the authors themselves and 67% of them were due to falsification of results.

These phenomena seem to be on the rise due to the competitiveness and pressure under which today's researchers find themselves. The reduction of funding sources, the desire to succeed and the possible financial rewards make it very difficult for researchers and not all of them manage to meet the difficulties.

However, in view of the situation there is no choice but to place more emphasis on the ethics of research, to ensure that ethics courses are part of the curriculum and that ethical behavior is an inseparable part of the scientist's personality.

on the notebook

Professor Bracha Reger, Emeritus Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben Gurion University, President of Ort Israel and Chairman of the Academic Council of Ort Israel. Served as the chief scientist of the Ministry of Health and was a member of the Council for Higher Education.

And more on the subject

False Prophets – Fraud and Error in Science and Medicine, Alexander Kohn, Basil Blackwell inc. UK, 1986.

Opinion: Ethic Training in Science, James Hicks, in The Scientist Magazine, May, 2013.

Opinion: Remediating Misconduct, James DuBois, in The Scientist Magazine, May, 2013.

When scientists sin, the voice of the skeptic, Michael Shermer, Scientific American Israel, October 2010