Ethical Issues in Grad School and Beyond

Okay, class, today we’re going to talk about something easy, something absolutely everyone agrees on, and about which there is absolutely no dispute whatsoever — ethics. As everyone knows, ethics are a universally acknowledged set of rules that govern how we ought to conduct ourselves. This, naturally, extends to our research. We all know, of course, that a long time ago bad people did bad things in the name of scientific progress — not telling people they had syphilis and just letting them go on to see what would happen, tricking them into thinking they were electrocuting people to death, or just straight-up lying about vaccines giving kids autism. Thankfully, though, that’s in the past. We have, admittedly, had some stumbles in our quest to hammer out an ironclad set of guidelines that address every ethical quandary and are guaranteed to stand the test of time, but we’re pretty sure we have all the kinks ironed out now, and, so long as everyone follows the rules, things will be smooth sailing from here on out.

Anyway, short read today, thank you for your time, and I’m just kidding, of course. Though it may seem like ethical issues are mostly relegated to this class you’re forced to attend once a year, with dire examples of offenses drawn from the distant past, the facts of the matter are that ethics continue to be a very pertinent issue in virtually all facets of life, to which academia is no exception; that ethical breaches, big and small, happen constantly from the lowliest undergrad to senior professors; and that ethical guidelines constantly grow and evolve. Volumes could be written on ethics — and indeed, there have been — but, in this article, I will be focusing on ethics in the sphere of academic research, particularly as it applies to scholars at the grad student and postdoc level.

There are a virtually unlimited number of ethical pitfalls with which one can run afoul when doing research. Probably the most common temptation for people starting their career in academia is to misrepresent their data. Science is messy, and getting clean data takes skill, focus, rigorous study design, and, often, luck. At the same time, the pressure to perform and produce those high-level results is intense and unrelenting. It can be so easy to omit this data point here or throw out that batch there. At its worst, it can be tempting to outright make up your results, but the ways in which one can mislead are often subtler than that. These can include using statistical wizardry such as cherry picking, massaging, or fudging your numbers to make your data look more clear-cut than they really are. Then there’s just conveniently failing to disclose certain particulars. Any omission of the complete experimental details (incubation times being slightly different, samples being combined, different concentrations being used, etc.) can result in conclusions being drawn about the results that might not otherwise be possible if the full picture were known.

            Related to this is the issue of proper record-keeping. If you work in the physical or psychological sciences, chances are that you are required to keep a laboratory notebook in which all your experiments and results should be documented. The process for keeping and maintaining a lab notebook is actually fairly involved and rigorous. Experimental procedures should be described beforehand, and information should be recorded exactly as it happens (times, concentrations, readings, etc.), and this should be done as soon as possible, and no later than the day that the procedures were conducted. In practice, filling out all this information completely, accurately, and according to best practice is incredibly onerous and can add an hour or more to an already heavy day’s workload. As a result, a lot of grad students and postdocs often cut corners, keeping insufficient records or backdating entries. This is… not ideal. Depending on the nature of the omissions or lack of adequate note-taking, this can be seen as sloppy at best and, at worst, dishonest. Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that sometimes there just isn’t time to fully follow best practices. Sometimes, we just have to do our best. Thankfully, intent and effort do make the difference between less-than-ideal and outright fraudulent. And, fortunately, there are resources out there that can help researchers keep accurate and timely records in a manner that ensures the integrity of their work while also being realistic.

These are just a few examples of the kinds of ethical situations you’re likely to face in your early academic career. The pressure to cross ethical lines can appear in a myriad of forms and come from both within (e.g. temptation to fudge your data for your next lab presentation in order to please your PI) and without (e.g., your PI suggesting that you use a statistical test that you know is inappropriate in order to make your data seem more compelling). You may even find yourself in situations in which your own ethical boundaries feel like they’re being pushed, even though the circumstances don’t run afoul of any established guidelines. 

Faced with all this, what’s an aspiring young scholar such as yourself to do? How do you stay on the straight and narrow with so many slippery slopes and pitfalls? Well, the simple answer is that, for all the guidelines, rules, bylaws, and principles that have been put in place, ultimately, the decision of how best to conduct oneself and the consequences thereof fall on the shoulders of each individual. There is no simple, clear-cut razor we can use to cut through every ethical knot. However, that does not dismiss the necessity of trying our individual best to untangle them. While the existing rules governing ethical behavior in research cannot account for every eventuality, they do serve as guidelines to provide a starting point and a standard for us. As researchers, you are solemnly charged with exploring the world, expanding the horizons of human knowledge, bringing that which was obscured in the shades of ignorance into the light. In order to do this, you must commit to standards of integrity, honesty, and uprightness. After all, at the end of the day, if the fruits of your labor are not true, what, really, is the point?