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Background: Despite the rise of big-team science and multiinstitutional, multidisciplinary research networks, little research has explored the unique challenges that large, distributed research networks face in ensuring the ethical and responsible conduct of research (RCR) at the network level. Methods: This qualitative case study explored the views of the scientists, engineers, clinicians, and trainees within a large Engineering Research Center (ERC) on ethical and RCR issues arising at the network level. Results: Semi-structured interviews of 26 ERC members were analyzed and revealed five major themes: (1) data sharing, (2) authorship or inventorship credit, (3) ethics and regulation, (4) collaboration, and (5) network leadership, norms, and policy. Interviews revealed cross-laboratory differences and disciplinary differences as sources of challenge. Conclusions: This study illuminates ethical challenges that a large, multi-institutional research network is likely to face. Research collaboration across disciplines, laboratories, and institutions invites conflict over norms and practices. Network leadership requires anticipating, monitoring, and addressing the ethical challenges in order to ensure the network’s ethical and responsible conduct of research and optimize research collaboration. Studying perceived ethical issues that arise at the meso-level of a research network is essential for understanding how to advance network ethics.
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Educational Case Studies on Research Ethics & Responsible Conduct of Research in Multi-institutional Research Networks.
The NetEthics Educational Case Study Collection was developed as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on "NetEthics: Building Tools & Training to Advance Responsible Conduct in Complex Research Networks Pioneering Novel technologies"(NSF award 2220611). This project has focused on the ethical challenges arising in large, multi-institutional, and frequently multidisciplinary research networks such as NSF-funded Engineering Research Centers (ERCs). This project developed educational case studies that research networks could use and adapt to foster consideration and understanding of key ethical issues arising in these networks. The case study collection aims to strengthen ethical reflection and responsible conduct of research (RCR) in these large and complex research networks. Such networks face unique ethical challenges that are not well addressed by traditional ethics frameworks, which tend to focus on either individual researcher responsibilities or broad societal impacts. The project team developed four educational case studies to support ethics and RCR at the network level. These case studies are fictional but address critical issues in collaborative research networks: (1) data sharing across the network, (2) credit and authorship in multi-team publications, (3) navigating ethics and regulatory frameworks, and (4) fostering effective collaboration within the network. We developed these cases by using analytic and empirical methods to identify key issues in network research. We then piloted a subset of cases in workshops with ERC participants, leading to refinements in all four cases. The cases are designed to be used easily – each case is succinct but can support rich discussion and reflection in a discussion session of an hour or more, either in person or virtually (e.g., through Zoom). These case studies aim to encourage discussion of ethical issues in network research, providing a tool that network participants and leaders can use to advance a culture and climate committed to ethical and responsible research.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2220611
- PAR ID:
- 10672232
- Publisher / Repository:
- Online Ethics Center - https://onlineethics.org/cases/stem-ethics-projects-2017-present/netethics-educational-case-studies-research-ethics
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Case Studies Engineering Ethics Ethics Network Ethics, NetEthics
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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