Ethical Scientific Conduct Course
GSBS Course No. IDST 5000
Rutgers Course No. 16:115:556
Dr. Michael J. Leibowitz, Course Director
Click Here for course schedule and handouts

Ethical Scientific Conduct Introduction

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the Ethical Scientific Conduct course.  Ethical issues will confront you throughout your career in science, and it is important that you remain alert to this challenge.  In your research you will depend on the findings and publications of others, and similarly other scientists will depend on you.  This mutual interdependency is the basis for the rapid advancement of science, and it requires confidence of scientists in the integrity of their colleagues. 

Although most scientists are ethical and honest, the expectation that all live up to these standards makes the few abuses that take place newsworthy.  The general public and the government and philanthropic agencies, whose funding is essential for scientific research and training to continue, have high ethical expectations of scientific professionals at all levels, and even rare breaches of the rules of ethics by scientists permanently damage the reputation of all of science.  The responsibility for ethical behavior rests on you at all stages of your scientific career; you cannot assume that others will correct ethical lapses, whether or not they are intentional.  You must remain vigilant, and be prepared to live up to the heavy ethical responsibility of a scientific career.  Of course, in the biomedical sciences, where scientific conclusions can have a direct impact on human health, and experimental procedures may have the potential to harm animal and human subjects, this responsibility is further increased. 

In this course, we will discuss the definitions and ethical problems caused by fabrication of data, falsification of results, plagiarism, and other behaviors inconsistent with responsible scientific conduct.  Some of these issues may seem obvious to you, and others will represent “grey areas,” in which ethical dilemmas created by conflicting demands (such as for maintaining confidentiality and sharing scientific information) may trouble you or lead you to seek help from friends, colleagues or mentors.  You are encouraged to think  of this course not simply as a requirement of the school or U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, but also as an introduction to a life-long quest to be the best scientist you can be, whose integrity will never be questioned.  We hope that you will find this course helpful for your professional development.

Grading policy:  This course is graded S/U, with attendance being the only grading criterion.  Students must be present and signed in to be graded as present; those missing 3 or more sessions will receive a grade of Incomplete (“INC”).  Under the policies of both universities, INC grades must be remediated by retaking the entire course the next time it is offered (missing 2 or fewer sessions); failure to remediate results in grades of INC be changed to F or U.  While attendance is the grading criterion, it is expected that students will participate in discussions, and will prepare for each session by reading the assignments.  Students are expected to be present for the entire class period for each session attended.  Also, all students must complete the course evaluation at the end of the course in order to receive a grade.

Course Format:  Each session of the course will begin with a lecture in the West Lecture Hall of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.  A few class sessions will just consist of a lecture.  For most sessions (marked with an asterisk * on the schedule), the lecture will last about 30 minutes to introduce the topic, and then students will move to five smaller rooms (varying rooms, but all on the second floor of the Teaching Wing of RWJMS above the lecture hall), where they will discuss the assigned cases relating to each topic.  Specific small group room assignments will be announced at the lecture on Friday January 30, and will also be posted on the course website.  Students are expected to attend both the lecture and the small group discussion for each topic.

Attendance:  After each session, each student attending must sign the class roster to document attendance.  Please check the roster to make sure that your correct name and affiliation are recorded; if any errors are present or your name is missing, please clearly print your information in addition to signing the roster.

Note:  This is a course on Ethical Scientific Conduct.  Any student signing for another or otherwise misrepresenting facts on the attendance sheet will be subject to disciplinary action, which can include dismissal from the university.

Course Handouts:  On the course website (http://rarwjms03.umdnj.edu/education/gsbs/current/EthicsCourseHandouts.html), password (******) each lecturer will post a case and possibly other material including additional cases, references, slides, etc.  You are responsible for accessing the assigned case/other material before each lecture and reviewing it, so you are ready to discuss it in class.  Discussion of cases and other materials will take place in the lecture hall, or for some topics in small groups.  The small group assignments and room locations will be available at the website before each lecture which includes small group discussions.