By Leigh Patterson

Setting a national precedent, University of Texas students and faculty came together in the Texas Union on Sept. 29 to discuss research standards for the University and other institutions at the first ever Ethical Research Awareness Day. Throughout the morning’s event, awareness in every sense of the word was emphasized as panelists discussed past cases, present standards and hopes to expand knowledge of ethical practices in the future.

Photo by Rebecca Scoggin McEntee

“Research has to be done with ethics,” said journalism graduate student Ingrid Bachman, who spoke on the student panel.
“It’s a given.”

Ethical Research Awareness Day was organized by Paula Poindexter, Ph.D., of the School of Journalism, who chaired the Faculty Council’s Research Policy Committee in 2008-2009 as it developed and proposed a set of eight interdisciplinary guidelines about ethical research standards. Last fall, Poindexter presented the recommendations to the provost, Dean’s Council and Faculty Council, and last month’s event served as both their ceremonial inception as well  as a reminder of the importance of such a set of ethical standards.

“We didn’t write the standards because we thought it would be a nice thing to do,” Poindexter said. “We did it because research is part of this University’s identity. We are a major research institution, and it needs to be a major part of our culture.”

In four different panels, 13 event participants voiced thoughts on both the challenges and necessities that the University’s breadth of research demands. Vice President for Research Juan Sanchez said the University was granted $642 million in research awards last year, most of that coming from taxpayers.

This puts researchers in a difficult position, as pressure to deliver results inevitably comes with financial investment.

“We all feel the need to bring in external funds,” said engineering professor and Faculty Council Chair Dean Neikirk. “It’s a challenge, especially when you’re seeking the appropriate funding to do something. It’s always easy to downplay the negative and talk about the positive.”

Third-year doctoral chemical engineering student Jeffrey Easley echoed this lament. “There are a lot of temptations,” he said. “You want to live up to expectations.”

However, when mistakes are made, it does not just hurt the individual — the reputation of the entire University is tarnished. From plagiarizing a paper to treating animal lab subjects unethically, the consequences a university inherits for conduct or misconduct can be massive.

“Having a reputation for integrity is incredibly important,” said mechanical engineering professor Steven Nichols, who contributed to the case studies panel. “Good people do bad things in research and we need to be
aware of it.”

A resonating theme among the different panels was the consensus that a willingness to adhere to the new set of standards, which includes properly attributing sources and respecting research participants, can only come through awareness. Among the suggested methods for creating familiarity with the standards were mandatory training for all graduate students and increased training at the undergraduate level, with a strong level of emphasis placed on informing the students of proper ethical standards immediately after they enter the University. Some such training already exists in certain areas of graduate study, but a system for efficient across-the-board implementation has yet
to occur.

Photo by Rebecca Scoggin McEntee

The importance of the connection between lab instructors and students was also emphasized.

“Not only do we have to educate our students about issues, but we have to form a support network,” said professor Steven Biegalski from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who moderated the case studies panel. “We are here to serve as a backbone to help the people we graduate.”

The student panelists agreed that having a community in their respective departments was important.

“It’s really about the culture of the lab you’re in and whether or not the leader stresses ethical importance,” said Jonathan Dau, an undergraduate biology major. “If they emphasize you need to follow these standards, that [is] what you as a student will do.”

Poindexter said she hopes the annual day of recognizing ethical practices will become part of the culture at UT just as the new research standards do.

“The fact that the panelists were all having the same thoughts signifies that we are addressing important issues,” she said. “We made these guidelines not only to have a set of standards but also to remind people of their significance.”