New Study Explores Ethical Challenges in Large Research Networks

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Scientific research increasingly involves large research networks crossing multiple institutions and disciplines. The authors of a new article find that research ethics has not adequately addressed the challenges of network research. They conducted interviews of scientists and engineers within such a network to identify perceived ethical challenges. Funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant on “NetEthics: Building Tools & Training to Advance Responsible Conduct in Complex Research Networks Pioneering Novel Technologies,” leaders of that project have now published a groundbreaking article in Accountability in Research. Their article on Perceptions of Network-Level Ethics in an Engineering Research Center: Analysis of Ethical Issues & Practices Reported by Scientific & Engineering Participants analyzes researchers’ views. Based on the interviews, the authors identified key areas of ethical concern, including authorship and inventorship credit; willingness to share data; attention to ethics and regulation; and differences in norms and policy across the network. The findings suggest a need for network leadership to address these issues and facilitate cross-network collaboration. The publication was led by Gillian Roehrig, PhD, Professor of Science Education and Associate Director of the STEM Education Center and Professor of Science Education at the University of Minnesota (UMN). Other authors include Susan M. Wolf, JD, Regents Professor and Chair of the Consortium on Law and Values at UMN; Timothy Pruett, MD, Professor in the UMN Division of Transplantation; Shuvra Rahman, a third-year PhD student in STEM Education at UMN; and Korkut Uygun, PhD, Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Organ Reengineering Lab in the Center for Engineering in Medicine & Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. The research was funded by NSF awards #2220611 and #1941543.