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International - Activity
Wellcome Trust Proposes Research Misconduct Policy
Volume 10, No. 1, December 2001
The Wellcome Trust (WT), Britain's largest biomedical charity, issued new guidelines and procedures
for handling allegations of scientific misconduct that are likely
to be controversial, since the proposal broadens the definition
of misconduct beyond the U.S. Government's current standard, and
offers relatively little protection to whistleblowers, according
to Science.
The draft guidelines define scientific misconduct as:
fabrication, falsification, plagiarism or deception in proposing, carrying
out, or reporting results of research or deliberate, dangerous
or negligent deviations from accepted practices in carrying out
research. It includes failure to follow established protocols
if this failure results in unreasonable risk or harm to humans,
other vertebrates, or the environment and facilitating of misconduct
in research by collusion in, or concealment of, such actions by
others. It also includes intentional, unauthorized use,
disclosure, or removal of or damage to research related property
of another including apparatus, materials, writings, data, hardware
or software or any other substances or devices used in or produced
in the conduct of research.
It does not include honest error or honest differences in the design,
execution, interpretation or judgment in evaluating research methods
or results or misconduct unrelated to the research process.
Similarly it does not include poor research unless this encompasses
the intention to deceive.
The guidelines would apply only to institutions receiving WT funds. According to Nature, WT funds
nearly 20% of Britain's biomedical research, and plans that all
institutions receiving its grants adhere to the standards.
A WT spokesperson indicated that the final guidelines, set to be
issued in the fall of 2002, may include stronger protections for
whistleblowers. The United Kingdom has no national body to investigate
misconduct cases, and each of the six research councils, which distribute
government grant money to researchers, has its own guidelines for
universities.
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