Statement
Ethical? Ethical YES or NO principle at stake
Publishing the same paper in two different journals without telling the editors.
NO
Openness
Discussing with colleagues data from a paper that he/she is reviewing for a journal.
NO
Integrity
As a co-author, informing a journal that the lead author has included a colleague as an author on a paper in return for a favor even though the colleague did not make a serious contribution to the paper.
YES
Respect for colleagues
Trimming outliers from a data set without discussing the reasons in a paper. Presenting all evaluation results, even negative ones that may impact on the country’s ability to secure further funding. Drug manufacturers paying doctors to test a new drug by prescribing it to patients. Agreeing to conduct a peer review of an author’s work who you know has been caught plagiarizing in the past. Using different statistical techniques to present evaluation results in different ways. Presenting only the most favorable facts in the situation analysis (formative evaluation) during a project’s grant application and ignoring the factors which would make the proposal seem less favorable. Conducting a review of the literature as an introduction to the evaluation that fails to acknowledge the contributions of other people in the field or relevant, earlier work. Withholding treatment from a control group of a study (e.g., treatment for syphilis), even though the treatment (penicillin) is widely used. Conducting a trial to assess the efficacy of a new and expensive cancer medication not yet available in your country by comparing a treatment group, with a control group that receives a placebo. Source: Authors
LEARNING ACTIVITY 2: CASE STUDIES FOR ETHICAL RESEARCH CONDUCT Read the four case studies below [case studies from FHI (2001) and Resnik (2007)]. In each case, think about and answer the questions that follow the particular case study: Chapter 11
Evaluation and Research
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