Neela and Marie are two first-year PhD students in the same institute at a well-known, and very research-active university. Their two supervisors have a joint project, and suggest that Neela and Marie work on it together, as it will provide the groundwork for each of their individual PhD projects.
All seems to go well for a few months, but then, quite suddenly, Neela鈥檚 experiments seem to encounter problems. It鈥檚 an anxious time for Neela, as she鈥檒l soon need to start preparing her first-year report. She knows she must successfully complete this stage of her PhD to progress to the next year and ultimately be registered for a PhD. Marie鈥檚 experiments don鈥檛, however, appear to be affected. In fact, they seem to be producing amazing results.
Neela not only gets more and more anxious, she starts to have unwelcome thoughts about Marie鈥檚 results and starts to wonder why, when they鈥檙e both working with the same materials, and fairly similar conditions, they鈥檙e having such different outcomes.
Neela starts to think that Marie may be manipulating her results. Her concerns extend beyond just their respective first-year reports, because she and Marie will need to use the results from this preliminary joint project in their individual PhD projects. If the basic results that will form the foundation for further work can鈥檛 be trusted, it will affect all of her PhD work.
Neela doesn鈥檛 know what to do. She鈥檚 scared to tell anyone about her suspicions in case they feel she鈥檚 just out to discredit a contemporary. The research environment in her institute is very intense and competitive, and with grant funding cuts and jobs at risk she鈥檚 also concerned that any accusation, whether or not proven, could blight someone鈥檚 career.
Questions for discussion
- Do you think Neela has genuine cause for concern about Marie鈥檚 results? Do you think there could be any other reasons for the differences in research outcomes she鈥檚 seeing?
- What should Neela do?
- Do you think there are things that could be done to help PhD students understand and deal with such situations?
- What sorts of pressures might lead to a researcher engaging in research misconduct or questionable practices?
- Should researchers who are found guilty of misconduct be penalised? How? Do you think there should be special considerations for junior researchers?