Dr. Zubin Master
Alden March Bioethics Institute, Albany Medical College
I think about Good Medical Research MedicReS World Congress 2015, the goals of medical research are to increase knowledge, and develop products and services for society. Society trusts that medical research is conducted in a manner upholding the highest standards of research integrity. As such, Good Medical Research is of paramount importance in order to uphold this social contract, and to improve human health by developing safe and effective medical treatments. Good Medical Research captures a range of ethical conduct and responsibilities for medical researchers including the collection and analysis of data, ethical authorship and publication practices, good mentoring, and ethical peer review to name a few.
The subject of my talk is important because the current U.S. biomedical and behavioral science environment is unsustainable. Currently, the success rates of obtaining federal grants and seeking jobs is becoming increasingly difficult due to a hypercompetitive environment where there are more scientists than the resources available and the rewards of science. All of the players in the scientific enterprise (researchers, research institutions and funders) need to be involved in order to coordinate a strategy and make the environment more sustainable and attract young scientists into the field.
I will begin by providing data collected by various researchers and organizations on the current biomedical and behavioral science environment. In general, this data will show that many researchers are considering non-tenured, non-faculty and even non-research positions outside academia, longer post-doctoral fellowships, an increased age of first time grant winners, and stress and burnout of biomedical scientists due to publication pressure among several other important facts. This data demonstrates that our current scientific enterprise is hypercompetitive and unsustainable, which has several consequences including the potential for increased research misbehaviors and misconduct, and may dissuade future scientists from entering the field. Near the end of the presentation, I will discuss several strategies that researchers, research institutions, and funders can consider in order to mitigate and create a more sustainable environment.
I hope scientists in a range of medical and scientific practices will attend this year’s MedicReS World Congress and join us for an excellent selection of speakers covering the many aspects of Good Medical Research.
October 19th Monday
13.30-15.00
The Cooper Union, The Great Hall 7 East 7th Street ,New York, NY 10003
The Cooper Union, The Great Hall 7 East 7th Street ,New York, NY 10003
"The Ethical Responsibilities of Academic Research Institutions and Funders to Safeguard the Integrity of Research" Dr. Zubin Master, Alden March Bioethics Institute, Albany Medical College
