Off with their heads!  Off with their heads!

Spanky

At 08:37 AM 11/13/2003, you wrote:
>Hi Barbara,
>If this in in fact a forgery, that PI has done a dreadful thing in signing her
>own permission slip! Regardless of the innocuos nature of the procedure she is
>planning, it is still a major breach of the highest magnitude, and it should
>never, ever happen.
>How do you know it is a forgery?
>If it is, she should under no circumstances be allowed to proceed, and if you
>all overlook it, you are tacitly giving approval by failure to act.
>In this case I don't think the students' short term needs come first; a model
>of ethical behavior is absolutely required, and the ends do not justify the
>means. Whatever follows from that is what the institution has to face up to
>and deal with, even if it is major unpleasantness.
>I don't think your office should even have to determine what to do; it should
>come from the President's office.
>Roberta
>
>Barbara Gray wrote:
>
> > Compliance/IRB staffers out there, how would you deal with this situation?
> >
> > We require department chairs to sign off on human subject applications.
> > A faculty member is in a rush to have an human subject protocol approved
> > (under expedited criteria) for a very innocuous procedure--virtually no
> > risk at all except it is a phyical measurement that does not fit within
> > exemption criteria.  (Note that the project involves students who will
> > be collecting the data as part of a class assignment.)  She indicates
> > she'll just sign for her chair, we indicate that she can't do that, and,
> > lo and behold, the signature page comes in a couple of days later with
> > the chair's signature forged.
> >
> > Would you take this to her chair?  Her dean?  The provost?  Would you
> > prohibit her from implementing the protocol (which will impact the
> > students in her class)?  Would you bar her from doing human subject
> > research for a period of time?  Is this "misconduct" that should be
> > referred for handling through ORI regs?  (note that we've made our
> > misconduct policy applicable to all research and scholarship, not just
> > that funded externally or by the Feds.)  Personally, I find the faculty
> > member's action offensive and unethical (if not downright illegal)--if
> > she will do this on an application, might she do the same someday on a
> > consent form??  But, in the big scheme of things, is this worth going to
> > the mat on?  After all, it's only falsification of an internal
> > signature, not scientific data....
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > --
> > ==================================================================
> > Barbara H. Gray, Director
> > Office of Research & Grants Administration
> > College of Charleston
> > 66 George Street
> > Charleston, SC  29424
> > Campus Location:  407-G Bell Bldg.
> > Office: 843.953.5673  Desk: 843.953.5885  Fax:  843.953.6577
> > e-mail:  xxxxxx@cofc.edu   URL: http://www.orga.cofc.edu/
> > ==================================================================
> >
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Mike McCallister, Ph.D.
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
2801 South University
Little Rock, AR  72204-1099

(o) 501-569-8474
(c) 501-590-5609
(f)  501-371-7614
http://www.ualr.edu/orsp/

Better blatant than latent.

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