Articles

• Should Industry Sponsor Research?
  "Opinions are divided on whether research and educational material funded by the tobacco, alcohol, or infant formula industries can be scientifically sound or whether it is inevitably tainted. Here, doctors, researchers, and a member of a pressure group argue the pros and cons."
• Clinical trials in primary care: Targeted payments for trials might help improve recruitment and quality
  "Most British general practices are small businesses, understandably influenced by financial incentives and disincentives or 'the imagination, enterprise and investment assumptions of corner shopkeeping.' What effect does this have on research in primary care? And would explicit financial incentives improve the amount and quality of primary care research?

Who Owns an Idea, and What is Plagiarism?

• On Being A Scientist: Responsible Conduct In Research
  "The scientific research enterprise, like other human activities, is built on a foundation of trust. Scientists trust that the results reported by others are valid. Society trusts that the results of research reflect an honest attempt by scientists to describe the world accurately and without bias. The level of trust that has characterized science and its relationship with society has contributed to a period of unparalleled scientific productivity. But this trust will endure only if the scientific community devotes itself to exemplifying and transmitting the values associated with ethical scientific conduct."
• Misconduct in Science: do scientists need a professional code of ethics? by: Vincent N. Hamner (Final Paper)
  "Discussions of misconduct in science have become prevalent in the literature. Fundamental texts regarding this subject have been published in recent years. Many of these case studies are primarily of historical interest. Within the past few decades however, many more instances have come under scrutiny. The ease by which information is exchanged today has allowed for the general public to become increasingly aware of supposedly 'isolated instances' of misconduct in science."
• BMJ: US journal embroiled in another conflict of interest scandal
  "The New England Journal of Medicine is facing criticism for publishing a scathing review of a book which claimed that industrial and environmental pollutants may be responsible for outbreaks of cancer.  The review was written by Dr. Jerry Berke, the Medical Director of W R Grace, a chemical company currently being blamed for polluting drinking water in a Boston suburb and for contaminating soils in Maryland with thorium."