Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
LETTER TO COLLEAGUES Misconduct Review Ongoing, Vest Relates MIT President Charles M. Vest announced March 21 that MIT's procedures for dealing with allegations of academic misconduct are being reviewed. Further, he urged faculty members to develop a career guidance program for faculty members, embracing "the essence of scholarship and research, namely objective methodologies and attitudes that demand the pursuit of truth with integrity and ethical rigor." Dr. Vest, in a letter to research and teaching colleagues, said such a program "would be broadly designed to provide career guidance and mentoring to all members of our faculty and research community." Dr. Vest wrote: "The news regarding the draft report of the NIH committee investigating alleged scientific misconduct within an MIT laboratory once again brings into focus a painful series of events involving our colleagues, our institution, the public perception, and our relations with the federal government. I have asked a small group of faculty and administrators to look into our procedures for dealing with allegations of academic misconduct. In addition, there are efforts ongoing at the departmental level to design specific procedures to foster academic integrity and to deal with concerns regarding appropriate academic behavior. "These events move me to communicate briefly with you now on a topic that I had planned to discuss in more detail later in the term. My comments are intended to address a broad and long-range issue and in no way to imply any judgment on the events immediately before us. "For generations, science has stood as a brilliant example of a field of human endeavor that requires and promotes the fullest measure of integrity. We consider it so obvious and systemic that we may inadvertently neglect to explicitly transmit this central part of our culture to the next generation. MIT must take a leadership role in promoting these values and methodologies. "... We have a responsibility that is even more profound than the development and transmission of knowledge. That responsibility is to pass to new generations the essence of scholarship and research, namely objective methodologies and attitudes that demand the pursuit of truth with integrity and ethical rigor. Commenting on this matter yesterday, Provost Mark S. Wrighton said, "While our business is education and research, most people of our generation have been brought up without explicit attention to ethics in the conduct of science. Our younger colleagues should have the benefit of such guidance,as they embark on their careers. For example, in the Chemistry Department, I gave every graduate student, post-doc and faculty member a copy of the NAS (National Academy of Sciences) booklet, "On Being a Scientist," which was written by the NAS Committee on the Conduct of Science, whose members included Phil Sharp (professor of biology)." In his letter, Dr. Vest called on the faculty to work with him in designing an Institute-wide program of career guidance and mentoring, an idea that has been raised by a number of faculty in discussions with him over the past several months. In other developments in the case involving the controversial April, 1986 "Cell" article on transgenic mice research, the Office of Scientific Integrity at the National Institutes of Health has declined a written request from MIT for a copy of the confidential draft report. The NIH has also informed MIT and the news media that there will be another NIH report which will examine the institutional response by MIT and Tufts University. Provost Mark S. Wrighton said NIH informed MIT that it did not receive a copy of the full NIH draft report because the report concentrates on the scientific issues of the case and none of the researchers are currently employed by MIT. The research was carried out by former staff members at MIT and the Whitehead Institute. In response to MIT's request, the NIH did send MIT two paragraphs of the 120-page confidential draft report which made references to MIT actions. The provost is reviewing this information and may make a response to NIH prior to April 22. Dr. David Baltimore, now the president of Rockefeller University and formerly the director of the Whitehead Institute and an MIT professor of biology, released a one-paragraph statement which was printed in newspapers of March 21, saying, "The draft report, if it stands without major change, raises very serious questions about the veracity of the serological data in the paper. Therefore, I am today asking the other authors to join with me in requesting that the journal retract the paper until such time as the questions are resolved. It is up to Dr. Imanishi- Kari to resolve them." Thereza Imanishi-Kari, formerly an assistant professor of biology at MIT, is now on the faculty at Tufts University. The editors of Cell reportedly have said they would print a retraction in a future issue.