


The trouble with circRNAs- are researchers going around in circles?
In this very interesting post, Professor Jennifer Byrne (University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine and Health, NSW Health Pathology) looks at the mistakes being made in circRNAs papers, even in high-profile, supposedly high-quality and distinguished publications.
She reflects on what might be the cause of those mistakes, why they are a big deal what could be the consequences.
Why is it that honest researchers make such a serious mistake?
Is a sign of lack of experience, insight and knowledge? Or is it an indication something far more dubious and questionable?
This very accessible post does a great job of explaining complex genetic concepts in lay terms.
This points to the need for research institutions and research publishers to have sufficient expertise in the topic, to truly understand circRNAs and reagents.
Ethical use of visual social media content in research publications
At a research ethics workshop at the 2015 CSCW conference (Fiesler et al., 2015), researchers in our community respectfully disagreed
A place for expedited ethics review of time-critical above-low risk research
“Have you got ethics yet?” is a question asked frequently where health, social and behavioural sciences postgrads gather on campus.
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Are you attending the ‘Constructive voices’ panel discussions in November about the 2018 changes to the Australian Code and National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research?
Just a reminder these online discussions are free, but you will need to RSVP.
Critical and Indigenous Perspectives on Research Ethics in the Social Sciences
Really pleased to have negotiated with Deborah Poff that the Journal of Academic Ethics

Research ethics reviews: responding to the challenges faced by international postgraduate students
In this great post, Mark Israel, Julia Miller, Liwen Tan and Kristy Davis discuss the extra challenges that confront international students when it comes to human research ethics and navigating research ethics review and the daunting challenge of satisfying an unsympathetic research ethics committee.
This scary rite of passage is made even harder if your native language doesn’t have direct translations for ethics terminology or if there are cultural concepts without direct correlation.
This is a matter that should be carefully considered by research ethics committees, research offices, international offices and graduate schools.

“More what you’d call guidelines”
In a notorious scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black