Responsibility in the Conduct of Quantitative Sciences: Preparing Future Practitioners and Certifying Professionals
Rochelle Tractenberg
Georgetown University Medical Center
Kevin FitzGerald
Georgetown University Medical Center
The American Statistical Association (ASA) Ethical Guidelines (ASA, 1999, https://www.amstat.org/committees/ethics/) address eight general topic areas: Professionalism; Responsibilities to Funders, Clients, and Employers; Responsibilities in Publications and Testimony; Responsibilities to Research Subjects; Responsibilities to Research Team Colleagues; Responsibilities to Other Statisticians or Statistical Practitioners; Responsibilities Regarding Allegations of Misconduct; and Responsibilities of (those) Employing Statistical Practitioners. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a very similar list with nine topics (NIH NOT-OD-10-019; NIH, 2009). Both are lists of factual information with which trainees should become familiar. However, both are also static - they neither support nor suggest increasing or changing responsibility over a career. That is, mentors and instructors in the responsible conduct of research are indistinguishable from trainees; technically at the end of a course (whether it is 1 hour, week or semester long) the trainee has as much information as the instructor. Moreover, as new areas of concern arise, additional topical training is required.