York University science students will explore careers in research through a new course in the Department of Biology, focusing on the role of researchers and safeguarding scientific integrity.
Professor Carol Bucking and Tamara Kelly developed BIOL 4005 The Scientific Method - Applications and Controversies to introduce students to the structure of a research career and give them the tools to be responsible scientists. Their goal was to train the students in their undergraduate years rather than after starting graduate studies.
Tamara Kelly
Carol Bucking
"The concept started out as a course on scientific integrity, being mindful of mistakes that scientists make and why that is really detrimental. But we framed it within the context of the scientific method," Bucking says.
Within this context, students look at researching an idea, formulating a hypothesis, designing an experiment, analyzing the results and then publishing. At each of those stages, says Bucking, there are opportunities for misconduct.
"But, each one of those stages also coincides with steps of research and what you need to do in graduate school and as a researcher. While explaining the misconduct, we are also explaining the steps a researcher needs to take," she says.
Bucking clarifies the distinction between sloppy science, when unintentional errors are made, and misconduct which are intentional actions. Examples of misconduct, she offers, include falsification or changing data, fabrication or making up data, and plagiarism or copying others' work.
The professors often have students vote on things in class, to keep learning fun. Invariably, Kelly says, students indicate they believe misconduct among scientific researchers to be 10 per cent or more. They are shocked to learn that misconduct is rare, less than 0.002 per cent, Bucking says.
Although low, the damage to the public's perception of science with each misconduct incident that makes headlines is severe.
In one example the professors share, a researcher was found to have fabricated and falsified data, leading to the retraction of their doctoral dissertation and multiple papers. This resulted in their resignation from their academic position. In another instance, a medical researcher admitted to falsifying data for clinical trials, which compromised the integrity of the research and damaged public trust in a specific medical treatment.
Widespread mistrust of vaccines is another example of the public's loss of trust in science.
The public's perception of scientific integrity is important and is something students discuss in the first class of the course.
Many people view science as "one truth that's true ... where it's these big leaps and bounds. Most science is incremental and moving us forward at a much slower pace," Kelly says. "And that's fine because it's more careful. There are checks and balances within that."
Bucking says that might be the most important concept students learn in this class.
"A lot of this is important because we drive it back home to what is the purpose of science?'" she says. "The purpose of science, in our minds, is to advance humanity. It might be one tiny little step. It might be a huge leap.
"And when you have the public doubting science because they don't understand that the process is kind of self-correcting all they see is that scientists don't know what they're doing."
The professors recommend the course to any students, not just those aiming for grad school. It is popular among fourth-year biology students and currently has a cap of 50. It will be offered twice next year to accommodate a growing interest.
This story was originally featured in YFile, York University's community newsletter.
