Increasingly, I’m asked to advise and assist with the problem of predatory journals. While it’s probably only an annoying nuisance to many in the developed world, the increasing number of spam emails inviting articles and conference participation is beginning to feel like a potentially serious problem for developing world scientists and institutions. This demands action, […]
Category: Medical ethics
Richard Smith: What is RRI and was I the wrong Richard Smith?
“I’d like to introduce Richard Smith, who is professor of philosophy at Durham University, an expert on epistemology, and chair of several European committees, who will speak on conflict of interest.” These weren’t the exact words that introduced me at the European Union’s conference on SIS-RRI (Science in Society—Responsible Research and Innovation), but they were […]
Christopher Burns-Cox: The Assisted Dying Bill
It does look as if most people now at last want to enable suffering persons of a sound mind and with less than six months to live to be helped to achieve their wish—death, to relieve suffering. And, after the House of Lords voted recently to accept amendments to the Assisted Dying Bill, a change in the […]
Sarah Welsh: Egg freezing—does this “insurance policy” offer false hope?
Egg freezing is an up and coming trend among hopeful future mothers—hailed as “the new 30th birthday present for British women,” in a recent Telegraph article. Egg freezing allows women with medical and social reasons to delay having a baby. It may be seen as an “insurance policy” for women who are not in a relationship or […]
Liz Wager: Research integrity—how can institutions balance discipline and support?
The suicide of Yoshiki Sasai is both tragic and shocking. Sasai was deputy director of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, and a co-author of reports in Nature on the phenomenon of “stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency” (or STAP), which were retracted. Although Sasai was not accused of misconduct himself, he was criticised in an institutional […]
Pranab Chatterjee: Discussing ethics in HIV/AIDS research in India
On 23 and 24 December 2013, the Department of AIDS Control (DAC), India, in collaboration with the CDC and FHI360 organised a capacity building workshop on ethics in HIV/AIDS research with a special focus on the Indian context. The event was attended by a broad spectrum of stakeholders in HIV/AIDS research in India. With such […]