In over 25 years, DeSimone has spun his research findings into commercial gold by launching several businesses. As a faculty member at the University of North Cai’olina, he provided scientific advice and held equity in the businesses. But he has never actually managed his companies. His employers bar him from simultaneously holding an academic post and an executive position. The dual roles can present huge conflicts.
Conflicts of interest (COIs)occur when an individual’s personal interests—family, friendships, financial, or social factors—could compromise his or her judgment, decisions, or actions in the workplace, and it makes sound career sense to think about how to manage them. Researchers should disclose potential or existing conflicts across all aspects of academic life.
In most places, COI management runs on an honor system. Researchers decide which financial holdings and relationships to disclose to university administrators. Journals and funders adopt a similar system when they ask authors and peer reviewers about potential conflicts related to manuscript or grant approvals.
Most research institutions offer training to help faculty members to understand what constitutes a potential or existing conflict. Administrators then decide whether the interest presents a conflict, and whether that conflict can be handled. If so, they create a management plan to address it. If not, researchers must abandon the work, partner with researchers at other institutions, or leave their university.
Perception plays a part in defining a potential conflict, warns Walt, a chemist at Tufts University. Investigators who develop a technology in the laboratory and then transfer it to their company could create a conflict of interest in the eyes of their students, Walt says. But the potential conflict can be avoided by drafting a licensing agreement that bars discoveries from automatically being transferred to the investigator’s company. Walt created such an arrangement to assure his students that they weren’t actually working for his private companies.
Relationships can pose conflicts when conference organizers are choosing speakers. Members of the American Society for Human Genetics program committee, which selects abstracts and talks for their annual meeting, must recuse(要求回避)themselves from considering talks by, for example, researchers at their current and past institutions, close collaborators and those with whom they have personal or familial ties.
Even differing points of view can play a part. Scacheri, a geneticist who chairs the committee, says that members who have disagreed personally with potential speakers might also be obliged to recuse themselves: “If you feel like you can’t be an impartial (公正的)reviewer, that is considered a COI.”
Handling COIs can be burdensome. COI managers emphasize that the goal is not to suppress innovation, but to expose potential conflicts so that they can be managed. “Nothing about the process is meant to be prohibitive,” says Grewal, a COI officer at MIT. Her institution wants to enable good science and the betterment of humanity. “During that process,” she says, “if you make some money, that’s good as well.”
12. The example of DeSimone in Paragraph 1 is used mainly to________.
A.raise a question | B.report a finding |
C.introduce a topic | D.present a theory |
13. To better deal with COIs,________.
A.researchers have to quit their job at the university |
B.researchers should report the conflicts that possibly exist |
C.institutions need to monitor the staff’s career and relationships |
D.institutions should train researchers to create management plans |
14. What can we learn from the passage?
A.Grewal considers COI management exhausting and costly. |
B.Walt arranged to transfer discoveries at his lab to his companies. |
C.Conference organizers should avoid inviting unqualified speakers. |
D.Scacheri believes personal viewpoints may impact a reviewer’s decision. |
15. What can we infer from the passage?
A.COIs can be defined depending on interpretations. |
B.COIs benefit scientific innovation and better humanity. |
C.COIs arise primarily due to the pursuit of financial gains. |
D.COIs can be got rid of by promoting fairness in workplaces. |