A Conflict of Commitment

Haruna was excited about being accepted as a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Koshimoto, a leading bioinformatics scholar in her field, and she embarked on her assigned research project eagerly.

But after a few months she began to have misgivings. Though part of Dr. Koshimoto’s work was supported by governmental grants, the project on which she was working was totally supported by a grant from a single company.

She had asked Dr. Koshimoto about this before coming to his lab, and he had assured her that he did not think that the company’s support would conflict with her education. But the more Haruna worked on the project, the more it seemed skewed toward questions important to the company. For instance, there were so many experiments she needed to carry out for the company’s research that she was unable to explore some of the interesting basic questions raised by her work or to develop her own ideas in other areas.

Although she was learning a lot, she worried that her ability to publish her work would be limited and that she would not have a coherent dissertation. Also, she had heard from some of the other graduate students doing company-sponsored work that they had signed confidentiality statements agreeing not to discuss their work with others, which made it difficult to get advice. Dr. Koshimoto and the company’s researchers were very excited about her results, but she wondered whether the situation was the best for her.

1.Has Dr. Koshimoto done anything wrong in giving Haruna this assignment?

2.What potential conflicts in terms of data collection, data interpretation, and publishing might Haruna encounter as she continues with her research?

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Japanese edition: Research_Ethics12.html

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Link to Portal, Ethics for Academic Research (in English)

What is Bio-informatics; "Bioinformatics is a science field that is similar to but distinct from biological computation, while it is often considered synonymous to computational biology. Biological computation uses bioengineering and biology to build biological computers, whereas bioinformatics uses computation to better understand biology. Bioinformatics and computational biology involve the analysis of biological data, particularly DNA, RNA, and protein sequences. The field of bioinformatics experienced explosive growth starting in the mid-1990s, driven largely by the Human Genome Project and by rapid advances in DNA sequencing technology.Analyzing biological data to produce meaningful information involves writing and running software programs that use algorithms from graph theory, artificial intelligence, soft computing, data mining, image processing, and computer simulation. The algorithms in turn depend on theoretical foundations such as discrete mathematics, control theory, system theory, information theory, and statistics." - Bioinformatics

COI: Conflict of interest, or COI, "is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in which the personal interest of an individual or organization might adversely affect a duty owed to make decisions for the benefit of a third party. An "interest" is a commitment, obligation, duty or goal associated with a particular social role or practice.[1] By definition, a "conflict of interest" occurs if, within a particular decision-making context, an individual is subject to two coexisting interests that are in direct conflict with each other. Such a matter is of importance because under such circumstances the decision-making process can be disrupted or compromised in a manner that affects the integrity or the reliability of the outcomes. Typically, a conflict of interest arises when an individual finds himself or herself occupying two social roles simultaneously which generate opposing benefits or loyalties. The interests involved can be pecuniary or non-pecuniary. The existence of such conflicts is an objective fact, not a state of mind, and does not in itself indicate any lapse or moral error. However, especially where a decision is being taken in a fiduciary context, it is important that the contending interests be clearly identified and the process for separating them is rigorously established. Typically, this will involve the conflicted individual either giving up one of the conflicting roles or else recusing himself or herself from the particular decision-making process that is in question."- Conflict of interest.

Links

• Ethics for Academic Research: A virtual workbook
  

Source & Bibliography

On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research: Third Edition Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine ISBN: 0-309-11971-5, 82 pages, 6 x 9, (2009) This free PDF was downloaded from: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12192.html

Notes: This case example is cited and codified from "US National Academy of Sciences, On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research: Third Edition, 2009."