ASPB EDUCATION FORUM

Bringing Professional Ethics Training for Plant Biologists to the Classroom

Mentoring students to conduct their research in a professional and ethical manner is obviously a critical component of their overall training as scientists. However, an article published in Science and Engineering Ethics last year (highlighted in the September/October 2008 ASPB News Addressing Ethical Standards series article “Mentor Involvement in Research Misconduct,” revealed that two-thirds of mentors in trainee misconduct cases investigated by the U.S. DHHS Office of Research Integrity failed to teach specific research standards to their students. Such findings, along with a number of recent high-profile misconduct cases, emphasize the needs for all mentors and trainees to receive proper training in research ethics and for mentors to serve as good role models for their students.

Indeed, the call to introduce all postgraduate students to ethics training at all research universities and “to create an environment that is inherently consistent with minimizing scientific misconduct” has been made (Nature, 2007, 445:229). The National Science Foundation (NSF) has long recognized the need to support and encourage ethics training through its Education in Science and Engineering Initiative in all fields of science. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has also made efforts to develop (and sometimes require) research ethics training in the medical disciplines and in research that involves human subjects.

Should we formally teach professional ethics to the next generation of plant biologists, and if so, how should we develop courses or modules on the subject(s)? Dina Mandoli, at the University of Washington, raised the first question in her excellent 36-part column titled “The Bioethics Imperative,” which ended in 2008. Dr. Mandoli’s column broke new ground (e.g., by giving a name to how our desire to be right unconsciously clouds our ability to be objective), while also listing resources that faculty can use to help educate themselves and their students about research ethics.

The best way to learn research ethics is through discussion and by active involvement and immersion in a research environment that includes ethics as a part of its culture. As mentors, we can seek to ensure that our students have access to resources such as the modules developed by Dr. Mandoli and that participation in an ethics course is strongly encouraged, if not required. In addition, these resources need to be reinforced in the research setting by face-to-face mentoring and open discussion. A spirit of open inquiry into the limitations and assumptions of research methodology should be welcomed. Moreover, principal investigators/mentors need to avoid creating conditions that lead to research misconduct and ensure that scientific rigor, rather than the pressure to publish, is of paramount importance in the lab.

Here, we briefly describe how the research ethics program evolved in the Department of Plant Biology at North Carolina State University, and we review the elements that we think are especially valuable for teaching the responsible conduct of research (RCR) and related issues. We also provide tips for teaching an ethics course for students involved in research at any level.

Teaching ethics in plant biology: RCR and beyond

The first course addressing plant biology–specific ethics topics at NC State University was developed in 2001 as part of an NSF-sponsored grant to the university to provide ethics training for graduate students and faculty from all disciplines and to develop ethics learning modules and courses for the university community. A graduate student and faculty mentor (Chad Jordan and Niki Robertson) from the Department of Plant Biology participated in a three-credit philosophy course on research ethics as part of the grant. Thereafter, the same team developed and taught a graduate-level special topics course that focused on ethical issues related to genetically modified plants. Even though this course did not specifically focus on RCR topics, it generated student interest. It also helped raise awareness that students would benefit from studying current ethical issues affecting scientists. As a result, a permanent course that addressed core RCR topics as well as plant biology–specific issues was developed and is now a requirement for a graduate degree in plant biology from NC State University. There are several departments at NC State University that have similar requirements in their graduate programs.

This course, titled “Ethical Issues in Plant Biology,” was first taught in 2003 and has since been taught every other year. The two faculty who currently co-teach the course have research programs in different areas of plant biology: one with expertise in plant cell and molecular biology (Chad Jordan) and the other with expertise in ecology and biodiversity (Tom Wentworth). One graduate student from each area who has received RCR training (most recently, Steve Bernacki and Kristen Kostelnik) also participate as co-instructors.

Our instructional approach to the course is to introduce students to the philosophical background of ethics and to provide a framework for ethical decision making at the beginning of the course. We then introduce important topics using short lectures and invited speakers, and we facilitate active learning and discussion during each weekly two-hour class meeting. Students are also required to complete a series of online readings (discussed below). They then practice using the framework on each topic by analyzing and discussing case studies. Students are introduced to core RCR topics including falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism, again using case studies to work through real and fictional scenarios. Subsequent course meetings include assigned readings, speakers, and discussions on the following topics:

• Ethical codes
• Recordkeeping and data manipulation, proper and improper image manipulation
• Teaching and mentoring, expectations and responsibilities
• Chain of command, whistleblower protection
• Conflicts of interest
• Requirements for authorship and guidelines for establishing collaborations
• Reviewers and confidentiality
• Sustainability and pressures on natural resources (e.g., water permits)
• Design of field experiments: species introduction, invasive and rare species, when is collection/disruption justified?
• Biotechnology and genetic engineering: regulatory procedures, transgene escape, field testing, risk-benefits for lesser developed countries
• Intellectual property and the public domain
• Copyright and fair use
• Communicating with the media

The course culminates with each student selecting an ethical issue of interest, writing a position paper, making an oral presentation, and composing a novel case study and teaching rubric related to his or her topic.

The efforts to teach research ethics at NC State University are part of a larger, ongoing initiative to make ethics a component of graduate (and undergraduate) education at multiple doctoral degree-granting institutions in North Carolina and beyond. An NSF-sponsored project called Land Grant University Research Ethics (LANGURE) has brought together nine participating institutions (including the University of Hawaii, Iowa State University, Purdue University, and the University of Wisconsin) to establish an open discussion about research ethics education and to create ethics education resources. Several online, discipline-specific modules are available for free access and via the OpenSeminar in Research Ethics course website. OpenSeminar contains modules with readings, assignments, and case studies on a wide range of topics that can be used in conjunction with regular class meetings. Instructors can also generate a tailored distance education course based on selected modules. Some of the modules we use in our plant biology course have been developed for use at the OpenSeminar site.

Tips for Teaching Your Own Course
Building your own course on professional research ethics may seem like an out-of-the-box task with respect to traditional science courses, but it does not have to be a time-consuming process. Here are a few quick tips that should make planning and teaching such a course a little easier and more efficient.

Involve a trained ethicist to provide a framework for ethical decision making.
Most plant biologists are not trained research ethicists, so it is important to solicit the assistance of someone who can provide students with an introduction to ethics and ethical decision making through guest lectures and/or written materials. Start by contacting faculty in the philosophy or humanities departments at your institution, as well as your institution’s office of research administration or graduate school to find out who provides RCR training on campus.

Recognize that a one-semester course cannot be comprehensive.
Although it is important to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of RCR, course organizers should realize that it is impossible to provide comprehensive coverage of all issues of professional ethics that students are likely to encounter. It is a more appropriate and realistic objective that students leave the course with the skills needed to recognize situations that present ethical challenges and to address those situations using a rational framework for ethical decision making.

Invite speakers from different professional backgrounds to address diverse topics.
Guest speakers can often clarify policies regulating research, specialized areas (IP, copyright, field permits), and expected research standards and conduct. When discussing authorship, collaboration, and conflicts of interest, for example, invite senior faculty members in your program who have served on grant panels and journal editorial boards to discuss their experiences. Invite working scientists from industry, state agencies, and nonprofit groups to discuss codes of conduct in their day-to-day operations.

Use case studies to give students practice in dissecting ethical dilemmas and making decisions.
Case studies, based on real or hypothetical scenarios, allow students to examine situations that they or their colleagues may face at some point in the future. Case studies can be a useful way to introduce a topic, and they provide a way for students to put to use the ethical decision-making skills they have learned. Having students work on case studies in teams also facilitates open discussion between students on areas that may be politically sensitive or otherwise controversial. A real benefit of case studies is the identification of all people (and other entities) that have a stake in a given issue. More satisfactory decisions can be made after there is a thorough understanding of the potential consequences of the decision on different groups or individuals.

Keep an eye out for current events to keep the material relevant.
Science, Nature, and other journals that include commentary sections frequently discuss issues that relate to ethical aspects of research. For example, a new computer program for detecting similar writing in journal articles is flagging articles that have slipped through the review process. Is it really ethical when up to 80% of an article’s content is republished from previous reviews? See the article on “Plagiarism Sleuths” by Couzin-Frankel and Grom (Science, 2009, 324:1004).

Don’t limit participation to graduate students.
Research ethics training isn’t just for graduate students. An increasing number of undergraduate students are becoming involved in research early in their careers, and they would benefit from research ethics training at the outset. Invite undergraduate students who are thinking about careers in research to participate in your graduate-level course, or consider developing a course targeted at undergraduates. Also encourage participation by postdoctoral researchers. Postdocs can benefit from research ethics training as they prepare to lead their own labs, and can contribute to the course by sharing their own unique experiences with students.

To find out more about ethics education for plant biology students, contact ASPB Education Committee member Chad Jordan.

Chad Jordan

Thomas Wentworth

Niki Robertson

Kristen Kostelnik

Steve Bernacki