Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Who has heard of the ORI?
This spring I read a book by Allegra Goodman called Intuition. The book is completely fiction, and I would also like to add that Allegra Goodman is not a scientist but someone who spent a great deal of time in the presence of scientists. However, the book touches on issues of scientific misconduct, and mentions a bureaucracy called ORIS or ‘Office of Research Integrity in Science.’
So naturally the book had me wondering, does such an organization exist? And what is its history, its purpose?
Well it turns out it does, check out http://ori.dhhs.gov/
It seems the ORI has a detailed plan for dealing with allegations of scientific misconduct. There are clear guidelines to follow, and the office seems to also offer support to institutions dealing with such allegations. The website points out that “responding to an allegation of research misconduct tends to be a unique rather than a routine event at most institutions”.
But how many cases does this office actually see yearly? How is it that after four years of doing research, reading about the NIH, being involved in my advisor’s NIH grants and submitting two NRSA grants of my own, this is the first I have heard of this organization?
According to the document “New Institutional Research Misconduct Activity: 1992-2001”:
“Most allegations made are not substantiated. Two hundred and forty-eight institutions opened 703 cases to process 883 allegations that resulted in 110 research misconduct findings by 76 institutions. Falsification was the most frequent allegations received; plagiarism the least frequent. Seventy-two percent of the 76 institutions that made research misconduct findings made only one. No institution made more than four.”
That means of 883 allegations only 12.5% were found to be actual research misconduct. I wonder how much this has to do with the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics paper I mentioned in the June 27th post. Are scientists distrustful of each other?
So naturally the book had me wondering, does such an organization exist? And what is its history, its purpose?
Well it turns out it does, check out http://ori.dhhs.gov/
It seems the ORI has a detailed plan for dealing with allegations of scientific misconduct. There are clear guidelines to follow, and the office seems to also offer support to institutions dealing with such allegations. The website points out that “responding to an allegation of research misconduct tends to be a unique rather than a routine event at most institutions”.
But how many cases does this office actually see yearly? How is it that after four years of doing research, reading about the NIH, being involved in my advisor’s NIH grants and submitting two NRSA grants of my own, this is the first I have heard of this organization?
According to the document “New Institutional Research Misconduct Activity: 1992-2001”:
“Most allegations made are not substantiated. Two hundred and forty-eight institutions opened 703 cases to process 883 allegations that resulted in 110 research misconduct findings by 76 institutions. Falsification was the most frequent allegations received; plagiarism the least frequent. Seventy-two percent of the 76 institutions that made research misconduct findings made only one. No institution made more than four.”
That means of 883 allegations only 12.5% were found to be actual research misconduct. I wonder how much this has to do with the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics paper I mentioned in the June 27th post. Are scientists distrustful of each other?
# posted by Sarah : 11:55 PM
