Author: Soraj

Building Up the Culture of Research Integrity in the Developing World

A Workshop Within the 26th Ordinary Session of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) and the 11th Ordinary Session of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST)

Centara Grand Hotel Central Ladprao

Bangkok, Thailand,
July 5, 2019

Overview
This international workshop is held together with the meetings of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee and the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology, which is going to be held in Bangkok, Thailand from July 2 to 7, 2019. The purpose of the workshop is to gather international scholars to think about the question of how to create, support and maintain research integrity in the context of the developing world or the Global South, construed broadly as non-Western countries. As research in scientific disciplines have been expanding rapidly across the globe, there have been tremendous pressures on universities and research institutions also within the developing countries to catch up and to find ways to utilize findings from home-based research and development effort to aid in economic growth. However, as these pressures grow, there is also a growing tendency to compromise the principles of research integrity in order to achieve the desired results quickly. However, as is well known, such compromises lead not only to loss of reputation or ‘bad press’ for the countries involved, but they fundamentally jeopardize the effort of these countries to use research and development to achieve their aims. Examples of such well known cases such as the human stem cell cloning project in South Korea or similar cases in other countries shows clearly that there is a need for a sustained effort at an international level to think deeply and clearly about how to build up the culture of research integrity. Moreover, research in science and technology has come relatively later in the developing world, the need for thinking about research integrity is felt more acutely there, especially when cultural contexts are also taken into consideration because these contexts appear to play a more significant role in affecting the growth of scientific and technological research in the region.
Furthermore, as Thailand will host the upcoming 26th Ordinary Session of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) and the 11th Ordinary Session of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) in July next year, there is a very timely opportunity to organize an international workshop where scholars are invited to present findings and deliberate on the question of how to build up research integrity in the developing world or the Global South. It is hoped that the workshop will galvanize all member countries of the UNESCO to pay more attention to the problem of building up and maintaining research integrity in their respective countries, as such an effort is truly crucial for translating the fruits of the research and development effort into something tangible and really beneficial later on.

Objectives
To find ways to combat research misconduct and to search for explanations and causes of the practice in developing countries,
To learn from the experiences of selected countries in the East and the West regarding their past practices of misconduct and their attempts to combat the problem,
To promote research integrity in Thailand and other developing countries.

Format
The workshop will be held on Friday, July 5, 2019 from 2:30 to 5:40pm at the Centara Grand Hotel Central Ladprao and will consist of around five international scholars presenting their talks for around 30 minutes each, to be followed by a coffee break and a general discussion session. Each presenter will be requested to submit a full paper for inclusion in the book on promoting research integrity to be published later on. Some other authors may be contacted to send their contributions for inclusion in the book too.

Audience
Audience to this session will consist mostly of Thai faculty members who have a stake in promoting research integrity in their own particular fields of research. Also projected to be included are university administrators, government officials and members of the general public.

Projected Output
A set of specific policy recommendations on how to build up research integrity.

Program

July 5, 2019

Moderator: Soraj Hongladarom (Director, Center for Ethics of Science and Technology, Chulalongkorn University)

2.30pm – 3.00pm Zhai Xiaomei, Director at Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences/Peking Union Medical College (Possible topic: Chinese experiences of research misconduct and attempts to solve the problem)

3.00pm – 3.30pm Lida Anestidou, Senior Program Officer and Director, OIE Collaborating Centre on Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare (Possible topic: American experiences of research misconduct and attempts to solve the problem)

3.30pm – 4.00pm Kim Ock-Joo, Member of the IBC, Seoul National University (Possible topic: Korean experiences of research misconduct and attempts to solve the problem)

4.00pm – 4.30pm Coffee Break

4.30pm – 5.00pm Patarapong Intarakumnerd, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) (Topic: Innovation Capabilities and Industry 4.0 ASEAN Manufacturing Firms)

5.00pm – 5.30pm Anoja Fernando, Member of the IBC, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna (Possible topic: Sri Lankan experiences of research misconduct and attempts to solve the problem)

5.30pm – 6.00pm General Discussion

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01643-3