MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF BANDS more common allegations are like this, image with bands and alleg is that 2 bands are the same how do we look at that; well in B&W they look similar, is there a better way to show that they are the same?

False Colorization “Gradient Map” Reveals Mini-features 67 MW band 32 MW LOWER BANDS SHOW NO SIMILARITY

Use of the Image Overlay procedure Page 1 Use of the Image Overlay procedure Immunity, Figure 1 panel1 panel 2 panel 3 panel 4 panel 5 panel 6 questioned panels

Figure 1 (panel 5 vs 6) panel 6 (black) is a subset of panel 5 (red) red and black = unique blue = overlap no overlap panel 5 vs 2 panel 5 vs 4

What can you do at your institution? You can help set the tone for the institution and make integrity a high priority As an administrator, you can develop and implement policies that support integrity As a principal investigator, you can establish specific standards for your staff on recording, retaining, reporting, and publishing data As a junior scientist in the lab, you can make a personal commitment to integrity and practice it on a daily basis

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) What can ORI and institutions do to help prevent research misconduct?

The Nine Elements of RCR 1. Acquisition, management, sharing and ownership of data 2. Conflict of interest and commitment 3. Research misconduct (plagiarism, falsification & fabrication) 4. Publication practices and responsible authorship 5. Mentor/mentee responsibilities 6. Peer review 7. Collaborative scholarship 8. Human subjects 9. Animal subjects

RCR at the Individual Level encompasses: Intellectual honesty in proposing, performing, and reporting research Accuracy in representing contributions Fairness in peer review Transparency in conflicts of interest

RCR at the Individual Level also entails: Assuming personal responsibility for avoiding or managing conflicts Taking responsibility for protecting human subjects and for the humane care of animals Appropriately recording research results and retaining research records Careful and thoughtful mentoring of students and junior scientists

How can RCR be implemented at the institutional level? Provide leadership in RCR Facilitate productive interactions between trainees and mentors Advocate adherence to rules regarding the conduct of research Provide training to both mentors, junior scientists, and students tailored to their respective needs

RCR at the Institutional level (cont.) Conduct inquiries and investigations into alleged misconduct RCR training should include discussions of misconduct cases and their adverse consequences to respondents Consider publicizing your cases (suitably redacted) to ensure that staff realize that you take misconduct seriously and act on allegations

A few key issues that DIO has found contribute most significantly to allowing misconduct 1. Inadequate record keeping and lack of guidance from mentors on how to record and retain research data; 2. Failure of mentors to regularly review raw data; overreliance on derivative data (PowerPoint presentations) at lab meetings 3. Unquestioning acceptance of data that others consider “too good to be true”

More issues that facilitate misconduct 4. Lack of transparency within the laboratory and among the staff 5. Labs so large that authority becomes diffuse 6. P.I.s are spread too thin, and do not provide adequate training and guidance to students The bottom line – good mentorship and the constant review of raw data can profoundly reduce the likelihood of a mentee committing research misconduct.

ORI can provide assistance 240 453 8800; AskORI@hhs.gov Telephone or on site assistance available Allegation assessment Advice on policies and procedures, for example : Sequestration of evidence Acquisition of digital information (forensic imaging of hard drives) Properly getting an inquiry or investigation under way Analysis of the evidence, such as assisting with analysis of questioned images Investigative strategy and legal problems

Conclusion DEVELOP AN RCR PROGRAM THAT WORKS FOR YOU! http://ori.hhs.gov