Health Care -- Ethical Issues in Evaluation Research
Ben is a professor and Alyssa is his graduate student in health sciences. Ben is the program chair for a conference with publications that are "refereed" or reviewed by an expert board of editors before publication. The conference has a policy that accepted papers must be presented by their authors but Ben does not mention this policy to Alyssa. He suggests that Alyssa submit a paper to the conference and that he will present it because the conference is being held abroad and he cannot support her trip to the conference. Alyssa writes the paper entirely with her own research while funded by an external fellowship, and submits it with herself as the sole author. She gives several drafts to Ben, who does not comment on any of them. Alyssa's paper is accepted by the conference, she is then advised of their policy about paper presentation by authors and she is surprised by it. She asks Ben about the policy and he curtly replies that she will have to make him a co-author on her paper. Alyssa finds this unreasonable under the circumstances but cannot afford to attend the conference on her own. In this scenario, Alyssa violated at least 1 ethical principle and Ben violated several ethical principles.
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What (if any) ethical principles have been violated in this scenario?
The relationship between Ben and Alyssa is ripe for abuse. There is a substantial imbalance of power, knowledge, training and experience in the relationship between Ben and Alyssa. First, Ben is Alyssa's professor who: has the power to significantly affect her grades and ultimately her success/failure as a graduate student; and has more knowledge, training and experience about professor-student relationships, research, research papers and the requirements surrounding authorship. Secondly, Ben is a committee chair who: has the power to significantly affect her standing in their professional community, not only within this Country but apparently internationally (as the conference is held abroad); has more knowledge, training and experience about their professional community, their relationship within that community as two research fellows, the community requirements surrounding research, research papers and authorship, and the committee's requirements surrounding research, research papers and authorship; is funded for a trip to the conference while Alyssa is unfunded by the conference and has no means to attend the international conference. Under these circumstances, which are repetitive in the imbalance if not in the precise specifics, Ben is supposed to treat Alyssa more gingerly than he would treat a researcher of equal standing. In addition to the imbalance in their relationship, Ben and Alyssa are professional fellow researchers who should adhere to certain professional ethics and courtesies regarding research, contributions and authorship, particularly considering the fact that Alyssa's research is funded by an external fellowship that does not fund Ben's research and to which he is not accountable. Given the scenario, Alyssa violated at least one ethical principle and Ben violated several ethical principles.
On the given set of facts, Alyssa's violation resides in the fact that she performed research and a resulting paper for her professor's conference while being funded by an external fellowship. Ethically (and possibly legally, depending on the terms of Alyssa's fellowship), research is owned by the person or entity funding it. Alyssa knows or should know that and her behavior is not excused by the imbalance in her relationship with her professor, or the importance of the professor's committee, or the importance of her research/paper, or the importance of being published, or any other consideration. Accepting funding from her external fellowship, Alyssa was not free to promise or deliver research and a resulting paper to her professor for his committee. Whatever her reasons for doing so, Alyssa violated the American Evaluators Association's first principle under subdivision C: Integrity/Honesty, Principles 1 & 7, by failing to honestly negotiate with and inform Ben, the conference and the source of her external fellowship about this research and the resulting paper (American Evaluation...
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