Author of a recent academic scam faces disciplinary action by Portland State, for failing to alert his research review board before hoodwinking journal editors with outrageous articles. Many say he’s guilty of bad form, but did he commit misconduct?
There may be value in a covert study such as this, but it has to be argued before the research ethics committee on grounds of merit and justification for covert research. You can’t just say we are going ahead without the research ethics review because there is no way they would approve. You don’t only go to the research ethics committee with studies that they will approve. You need to test your views and argue your case.
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How would your institution’s research ethics committee approach a proposed project like this and what would your institution do about the failure to seek ethics approval? We agree with Ivan Oransky’s comments at the end get of this news item.
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Now the controversy has flared up again, with news that one of the project’s authors faces disciplinary action at his home institution. Peter Boghossian, an assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State University and the only one of three researchers on the project to hold a full-time academic position, was found by his institutional review board to have committed research misconduct. Specifically, he failed to secure its approval before proceeding with research on human subjects — in this case, the journal editors and reviewers he was tricking with his absurd but seemingly well-researched papers. Some seven of 20 were published in gender studies and other journals. Seven were rejected. Others were pending before the spoof was uncovered.
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“An IRB protocol application should have been submitted to the Office of Research Integrity,” reads a determination letter from Portland state’s IRB dated last month. “University policy requires that all research involving human subjects conducted by faculty, other employees and students [on campus] must have prior review and approval by the IRB.”
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