Skip to main content

Ethics and Scientific Integrity in Public Health, Epidemiological and Clinical Research

Abstract

The ethics and scientific integrity of biomedical and public health research requires that researchers behave in appropriate ways. However, this requires more than following of published research guidelines that seek to prevent scientific misconduct relating to serious deviations from widely accepted scientific norms for proposing, conducting, and reporting research (e.g., fabrication or falsification of research data or failures to report potential conflicts of interest). In this paper we argue for a broader account of scientific integrity, one consistent with that defended by the United States Institute of Medicine, involving a commitment to intellectual honesty and personal responsibility for one’s actions as a researcher and to practices consistent with the responsible conduct of research and protection of the research participants. Maintaining high standards of ethical and scientific integrity helps to maintain public trust in the research enterprise. An increasing number of authors have pointed to the importance of mentoring and education in relation to the responsible conduct of science in preventing transgressions of scientific integrity. Just like in clinical research and biomedicine, epidemiologists and other public health researchers have the responsibility to exhibit and foster the very highest standards of scientific integrity.

References

  1. Soskolne CL, Abbrecht PH, Davidian NM, Price AR. Good conduct and integrity in epidemiologic research. In: Coughlin SS, Beauchamp TL, Weed DL, editors. Ethics and Epidemiology. 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press; 2009. p. 264–82.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Merlo DF, Vahakangas K, Knudsen LE. Scientific integrity: critical issues in environmental health research. Environ Health. 2008;7:S9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Soskolne CL, Light A. Towards ethics guidelines for environmental epidemiologists. Sci Total Environ. 1996;184:137–47.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Tong S, Olsen J. The threat to scientific integrity in environmental and occupational medicine. Occup Environ Med. 2005;62:843–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Resnik DB. Fraud, fabrication, and falsification. In: Emanuel EJ, Grady C, Crouch RA, et al., editors. The Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press; 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Rowe S, Alexander N, Clydesdale FM, Applebaum, RS, Atkinson S, Black RM, et al. Funding food science and nutrition research: financial conflicts and scientific integrity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89:1285–91.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences. International Guidelines for Ethical Review of Epidemiological Studies. Law Med Health Care. 1991;19:247–58.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Verweij M, Dawson A. Public health research ethics: a research agenda. Public Health Ethics. 2009;2:1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Dawson A. Professional codes of practice and ethical conduct. J Applied Philosophy. 1994;11:145–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Verweij M, Dawson A. The meaning of “public” in public health. In: Dawson A, Verweij M, editors. Ethics, Prevention, and Public Health. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Sim J, Dawson A. Informed consent and cluster randomized trials. Am J Public Health. 2012;3:480–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Soskolne CL, Macfarlane DK. Scientific misconduct in epidemiologic research. In: Coughlin SS, Beauchamp TL, editors. Ethics and Epidemiology. New York: Oxford University Press; 1996. p. 274–89.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Steneck NH, Bulger RE. The history, purpose, and future of instruction in the responsible conduct of research. Acad Med. 2007;82:829–34.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Medical Research Council. Policy and procedures for inquiring into allegations of scientific misconduct. MRC; 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Deer B. How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed. BMJ. 2011;342:c5347

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. General Medical Council Fitness to Practise Panel. Determination on Serious Professional Misconduct (SPM) and sanction: Dr Andrew Jeremy Wakefeld. GMC; 24 May 2010. Available from URL: http://www.gmc-uk.org/Wakefeld_SPM_and_SANCTION.pdf_32595267.pdf (Accessed 19 May, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Office of Research Integrity policy on plagiarism. ORI; updated 9 June, 2011. Available from URL: http://ori.hhs.gov/ori-policy-plagiarism (Accessed 19 June, 2012).

  18. Korenman SG, Shipp AC. Teaching the Responsible Conduct of Research Through a Case Study Approach. A Handbook for Instructors. Washington, DC: Association of American Medical Colleges; 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  19. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. ICMJE; 2010. Available from URL: http://www.icmje.org/ (Accessed 19 June, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Stern S, Lemmens T. Legal remedies for medical ghostwriting: imposing fraud liability on guest authors of ghostwritten articles. PLoS Med. 2011;8(8): e1001070.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Soskolne CL. Epidemiological research, interest groups and the review process. J Public Health Policy. 1985;7:173–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Porter RJ, Malone TE. Biomedical Research: Collaboration and Conflict of Interest. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Fontanarosa PB, Flanagin A, DeAngelis CD. Reporting conflicts of interest, fnancial aspects of research, and role of sponsors in funded studies. JAMA. 2005;294:110–1.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. DeAngelis CD, Fontanarosa PB. Ensuring integrity in industry-sponsored research. Primum non nocere, revisited. JAMA. 2010:303:1196–8.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Coughlin SS. Case Studies in Public Health Ethics, 2nd Edition. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association; 2009.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  26. International Epidemiological Association European Epidemiology Federation. Good epidemiological practice: proper conduct in epidemiologic practice. IEA; 2004 revision. Available from URL: http://www.ieaweb.org (Accessed 19 June, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Ethics and Standards of Practice Committee. American College of Epidemiology ethics guidelines. American College of Epidemiology; 2000. Available from URL: http://acepidemiology.org/sites/default/fles/EthicsGuide.pdf (Accessed 19 June, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Available from URL: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/protocol (Accessed 5 March, 2012).

  29. Ott MG. Importance of the study protocol in epidemiologic research. J Occup Med. 1991;33:1236–9.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. National Academy of Sciences. Responsible Science: Ensuring the Integrity of the Research Process, Volume I. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 1992.

  31. Institute of Medicine. Committee on Assessing Integrity in Research Environments. Integrity in Scientific Research: Creating an Environment that Promotes Responsible Conduct. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Goodman KW, Prineas RJ. Ethics curricula in epidemiology. In: Coughlin SS, Beauchamp TL, editors. Ethics and Epidemiology. New York: Oxford University Press; 1996. p. 283–303.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Coughlin SS. Ethics in Epidemiology and Public Health Practice, 2nd Edition. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association; 2009.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  34. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development Global Science Forum. Best practices for ensuring scientific integrity and preventing misconduct. OECD; 2007. Available from URL: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/37/17/40188303.pdf (Accessed 19 June, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Braunschweiger P, Goodman KW. The CITI Program: an international online resource for education in human subjects protection and the responsible conduct of research. Acad Med. 2007;82:861–4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Kalichman MW, Plemmons DK. Reported goals for responsible conduct of research courses. Acad Med. 2007;82:846–52.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Geller G, Boyce A, Ford DE, Sugarman J. Beyond “compliance”: the role of institutional culture in promoting research integrity. Acad Med. 2010;85:1296–302.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven S. Coughlin PhD, MPH.

Rights and permissions

Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Coughlin, S.S., Barker, A. & Dawson, A. Ethics and Scientific Integrity in Public Health, Epidemiological and Clinical Research. Public Health Rev 34, 5 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391657

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391657

Key Words