Title: Robbing the Grave: Investigator Takes Ownership of Deceased Scholar’s Work
Author: Adapted from a case written by Anji Wall
Description: A new faculty member replaces the deceased mentor of a graduate student and takes credit for a manuscript prepared by the deceased.
Keyword(s): Authorship, Collaboration, Mentor-trainee Relationship, Plagiarism, Research Misconduct
Based On: (Shamoo & Resnik, 2003, p. 65)
Case: Nada is a graduate student who, in collaboration with her mentor, has discovered a major environmental airborne toxin. The finding is very important and has been covered extensively by popular media. Unfortunately, Nada’s mentor unexpectedly dies of a heart attack. Nada and her mentor had been working on a paper before her mentor died, and it was ready for submission. Nada switched labs after the death of her mentor, and began working with a new mentor on a project in a similar research area. Nada’s new mentor took the manuscript Nada and her former mentor had written, put his name as the senior author on the manuscript, and removed the name of Nada’s former mentor from the authorship list.
- What are the key ethical issues in this situation?
- How should Nada respond to this situation?
- After finding out about the situation, how should the other faculty members in the department respond?
- What could have been done differently in this situation?
Source: Shamoo, A., Resnik, D. (2003). Responsible Conduct of Research. New York: Oxford University Press.