MISCONDUCT IN SCIENCE PROBED

When the first Public Health Service (PHS) regulation on scientific misconduct was promulgated in 1989, almost no one realized how complicated and difficult investigations would become. University officials assumed that they would be able to handle misconduct cases with little outside help. Few anticipated the lawsuits and other problems that lay ahead under the misconduct rule, which requires universities and other research institutions to investigate all allegations of misconduct in research supported by PHS funds. The National Institutes of Health, with its $12.8 billion research budget, is part of PHS, recently renamed the Office of Public Health & Science (OPHS). Today, several multi-million-dollar lawsuits against universities initiated either by an accused researcher or by a whistle-blower are making their way through the courts. If some of these lawsuits are settled in favor of the plaintiff, the whole process of investigating scientific misconduct could be stymied. "In that case, we the federal g...