Title: Intellectual Rights Involving Multiple Institutions
Author: Adapted from a case written by Anji Wall
Description: A graduate student obtains the same findings as his mentor’s collaborators who work at other universities. The graduate student’s mentor and mentor’s collaborator have both signed a Material Transfer Agreement.
Keyword(s): Collaborative Research, Mentor-trainee Relationship, MTA Intellectual Property
Based On: (Shamoo & Resnik, 2003, p. 137)
Case: Dr. Liu has perfected a technique for preparing Material X, which is of special interest to Dr. Cabrera. The two researchers are from different universities. After a meeting, they agreed to sign a Material Transfer Agreement, which is a contract that governs the transfer of tangible research materials between two organizations, thus sharing future property rights that might result from research concerning this material. Dr. Cabrera then modified the material and mailed it to a different collaborator, Dr. Brown, who is a researcher at another institution. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Cabrera and Dr. Brown planned to publish their findings. Meanwhile Dr. Liu had been working with similar material alongside one of his doctoral students. Upon reading the abstract from Dr. Cabrera and Dr. Brown, he finds out that they have replicated his student’s work and have reached the same conclusion about the material.
- What are the key ethical issues in this case?
- How should the different characters proceed in this case?
- What should have been done differently by the characters in this case?
Source: Shamoo, A., & Resnik, D. (2003). Responsible Conduct of Research. New York: Oxford University Press.