New rules on misconduct
Article Abstract:
Recent reports of misconduct and fraud in science and laboratory research reports are prompting the Department of Health and Human Services to issue notification of anticipated new rules regarding this issue. In general, the scientific community is pleased by the new rules, in part because of the scope of the definitions and the level at which the rules will be enforced. Institutions receiving funds for research will have the primary responsibility for preventing, detecting, investigating and resolving all allegations of scientific misconduct. Institutions must act rapidly, and have only 60 days to complete preliminary investigations of any allegations. In spite of the continued vesting of responsibility in the institutions that receive grants, the Health and Human Services department continues to retain the ultimate authority and responsibility for surveillance of misconduct. Scientists are also happy to find that the definition of misconduct is based on "fabrication, falsification, plagiarism," and that honest errors of judgement or different interpretations of data are not included. Similarly, the regulation attempts to separate scientific misconduct from fraud or fraudulent behavior. Institutions receiving Public Health Service monies will be required to submit assurances that the policy regulations having to do with scientific misconduct have been observed.
Publication Name: Science
Subject: Science and technology
ISSN: 0036-8075
Year: 1989
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Past and present cocaine epidemics
Article Abstract:
The current cocaine epidemic is a good example of the prediction that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. Around the turn of the century, cocaine was legal in many forms as an ingredient in various products. As the price of cocaine dropped, more and more people developed a habit of injecting, sniffing, or swallowing the drug. In 1910 the cocaine epidemic peaked, and President William Taft declared cocaine to be a dangerous, addictive drug. The first federal law restricting use of narcotics was passed in 1915. In the 1930s and 1940s, drug education was dropped from school curriculums and everyone assumed the policy was working. In the 1960s, heroin addiction and marijuana use were tolerated with little outcry in the United States. The Carter administration was tolerant of increasing cocaine use in the 1970s; the President's drug adviser referred to cocaine as the most harmless of the illegal drugs. But during the Reagan presidency, public opinion suddenly turned against drug use. Current support for legalization of drugs stems from frustration related to the failure of other approaches to stop drug abuse, not from the drug tolerance exhibited in the past. Public frustration and legalization may lead to abandonment of the inner cities and their intractable problems of drug abuse and crime.
Publication Name: Science
Subject: Science and technology
ISSN: 0036-8075
Year: 1989
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Grad students press for right to strike
Article Abstract:
Teaching assistants (TAs) at three University of California campuses are demanding the right to collective bargaining while Yale University students have persuaded the National Labor board to charge the university with unfair labor practices.
Publication Name: Science
Subject: Science and technology
ISSN: 0036-8075
Year: 1996
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