Why are research ethics important and how do they affect academia?

Abstract Text: Animal welfare and associated animal care and use issues have been at the forefront of ethical concerns for animal science researchers for many years.  More recently, animal science researchers, particularly those working with industry-sponsored research, have come under increasing scrutiny with respect to bias and conflict of interest in their research programs.  Universities and most corporate research units have well-defined procedures that must be followed when vertebrate animals are used in research.  Similarly, most universities have established policies for assessing, reporting, and remediating conflicts of interest of a personal, financial, or professional nature.  In terms of financial conflicts, a collective interest of >$5,000 is typically the threshold for disclosure of potential conflicts to colleagues and research team members.  More subtle conflicts of interest and bias that do not require reporting might affect faculty members who receive discretionary funding and products to support research, consulting activities, honoraria for work on advisory boards or for giving technical presentations to industry clients groups, and trips to company-sponsored activities of various types.  In terms of animal research, responsible conduct that will instill public confidence requires more than following minimum guidelines.  Faculty researchers, graduate students, and research staff should work together to provide the highest possible standards of animal care;  however, ultimately the principal investigator must be responsible and devote appropriate time to oversight of research projects and animal care.  Delegating oversight of research activities and animal care to graduate students or staff members without proper training and instruction is unwise and inappropriate.  All members of research teams should be dedicated to optimal experimental design and methods of collection, analysis, and interpretation of data – to do otherwise is an unethical defiance of public trust.  Busyness is never an appropriate excuse for principal investigators to shirk their responsibilities to research team members in terms of providing proper oversight of research activities.  Research teams should conduct regular, transparent self-evaluations of whether they are providing the highest standards of animal care and also assess potential conflicts of interest and bias for all team members.  Including peers outside the research team to help evaluate real or perceived bias and conflict of interest issues might be useful.  Graduate students and research staff can play a key role in ensuring ethical conduct of research by asking for training and instruction and questioning potential bias and conflict of interest issues.

Keywords: Animal Care, Bias, Conflict of Interest, Research Integrity