Research Ethics Resources
for students in the JHU School of Medicine Graduate Immunology Program
Stuart Ray's home page

updated September 29, 2025

Resources of general interest on Research Ethics

JHU resources

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/som/faculty/policies/ - JHU SOM Faculty policies, including:

• Policy on Conflict of Commitment and Conflict of Interest
• Rules and Guidelines for Responsible Conduct of Research (RI004)
• Procedures for Dealing with Issues of Professional Misconduct
• Procedures for Dealing with Issues of Research Misconduct
• Grievance Procedure for Faculty, Fellows, and the Student Body
• Policy on Conduct in Teacher/Learner Relationships and Learner Mistreatment (Learner Treatment Policy)

Human subjects - the JHU SOM Institutional Review Board: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/institutional-review-board

Animal care - http://animalcare.jhu.edu

What is Ethics in Research & Why is It Important?
    Great article by David B. Resnik, J.D., Ph.D. hosted by the NIEHS/NIH

On Being a Scientist (click the "Download Free PDF" link at upper right)
    A valuable resource made available by NAP

ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/
    A great resource, including ethics, privacy, conflict of interest, etc.

Online Resource from the Columbia Responsible Conduct of Research Education Committee (RCREC)

Data Provenance: It's 10 pm; Do you know where your data are?
    Article on data storage and retention considerations by Ray and Anderson (not the most original title in retrospect, but it gets the point across)

Example of issues with data quality: Figure errors, sloppy science, and fraud: keeping eyes on your data
    Describing issues found in submissions to the Journal of Clinical Investigation by Williams, Casadevell, and Jackson

Interactive movie on Research Misconduct from the HHS ORI - The Lab: Avoiding Research Misconduct

Retractions of published results:
    including (but not limited to) actual cases of scientific misconduct
    cautionary tales from the real world

• https://ori.hhs.gov/case_summary - DHHS Office of Research Integrity - Case Summaries
• PubMed search for retractions - search term: retraction notice [pt]

	515 as of Feb 25, 2004 572 as of Jan 1, 2005 654 as of Jan 1, 2006 806 as of Feb 8, 2007 969 as of Feb 20, 2008 1202 as of Jan 14, 2009 1503 as of Jan 20, 2010 1843 as of Feb 2, 2011 2319 as of Feb 3, 2012 2845 as of Jan 23, 2013 3447 as of Jan 15, 2014 3979 as of Jan 21, 2015 4753 as of Jan 15, 2016 5508 as of Jan 15, 2017 5903 as of Sep 30, 2017 6653 as of Oct 2, 2018 7546 as of Sep 1, 2019 8904 as of Oct 1, 2020 10802 as of Sep 1, 2021 13124 as of Oct 1, 2022 20888 as of Sep 1, 2023 24459 as of Sep 15, 2024 28385 as of Sep 15, 2025 Browsing these is educational
		Note the alarmingly disproportionate increase in retractions (in red) relative to total publications (blue)!

• Retractions determined using a search like this: "1900/01/01:3000[dp] AND retraction notice[pt]"
• Total number of publications determined using a search like this: "1900/01/01:3000[dp]"
  • when searching publication dates, "3000" is a useful wildcard for "now"

This page compiled by Stuart Ray, M.D. <[email protected]>, who is solely responsible for the content herein.