Corporate influence on scholarly research—the wandering continues

Corporate influence on scholarly research—Danger ahead

One of the tasks we work on in the library (and faculty members work on in their courses) is to get students to use scholarly resources when doing research. Instead of going to Wikipedia, we want our students to use our databases and get journal articles that have been through the peer review process. We have become accustomed to believe and assume that research being generated by university professors and graduate scholars is objective and as unbiased as possible. Yes, some work is biased in nature but it is generally not published as a scientific study, but rather the opinion work based on the scholar’s research. We believe and need to believe that scientific studies produced by experts in our research universities is unbiased, scholarly research that seeks to unearth the truth—to answer some question to the best of our ability.

But what about research positions at universities and the research itself that is funded by outside intrest groups? When a pharmaceutical company gives researchers at a university to conduct research into possible side effects of their drug, how can we be sure that the research is unbiased? What if the research comes back saying that the drug does more harm than good? Will the research be allowed to be published?

When large corporations can spend tons of money buying research chairs and paying for research at universities, it is time to have the sponsors mentioned in the research produced. Instead of just mentioning the names of the researchers and the university at which it was conducted, the sponsoring or paying entity must be disclosed as well. This will keep the integrity of peer reviewed scholarly research intact.

This issue is not a new one. A Chronical of Higher Education article in 2007 discussed warnings to psychological journals. Monaghan (2007) reported that the American Psychological Association had a task force which warned APA members and psychology professionals to repel the influence that corporations are having on publications. In particular, pharmaceutical companies were deemed a big risk for conflicts of interest. One of the big problems is that data from research is being suppressed by companies that have an interest in the results.  According to Antonuccio, University of Nevada School of Medicine professor of psychiatry, corporations are influencing science by claiming ownership of data from research that they sponsor and use other methods to suppress data they find objectionable.

If we want to maintain high standards of research and science, we must remain ethical and not allow results to be suppressed. We may have to disclose sponsorship of all research now, especially in this era of “transparency” in government doings. Let all research be clearly labeled with the identity of the sponsors so the reader can make their own judgments with that knowledge.

Citation:

Monaghan, P. (2007). Panel Warns Psychological Journals About Corporate Influence. Chronicle of Higher Education, 54(17), A12. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

 

Ten second staircase—The wandering continues

Ten Second Staircase by Christopher Fowler

Fowler, C. (2006). Ten second staircase. New York: Bantam.

This is yet another in the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) Mysteries series. Again, Fowler has us following multiple mysteries. One concerns the Leister Square Vampire—an ongoing cold case more than 30 years old. The other is a string of murders committed by someone called The Highwayman.

First an installation artist, Saralla White, is found floating upside down in her exhibit – dead. Then Danny Martell, a TV host and teen lifestyle guru with a dubious record, is found electrocuted in a gym. He was alone at the time—no one entered the room after he did. Alexander Paradine, an alternative comedian related to the Earl of Devonshire, and Anthony Sarne are killed around the same time. Paradine is lured to an abandoned building to do a voice over for a commercial in a sound studio. Instead he falls through a hole in the floor neatly hidden with rug tiles—four stories down plus a basement kills him. Sarne is taking a shower after swimming in a public pool at night when someone pours petrol through the shower pipe and then drops a match through a hole in the glass roof.

WARNING…  ENDING SPOILER– do not continue if you don’t want to hear the ending!

The PCU folks are under threat of closure unless they solve the rash of murders and provide light in the Leister Square Vampire mystery. As it turns out, both are somehow connected. A private school teacher, Brilliant Kingsmere, just happens to be the son of the Leister Square Vampire. The Highwayman, turns out not to be a man at all but a group of Kingsmere’s students who together commit these acts of murder because they are bored and feel dead to the world.