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News archive

2019-11-29
Swedish interpretation of GDPR is bad for science
The ambition to interpret GDPR in the strictest possible way greatly affects health research in Sweden. It is time for a change regarding laws on health data, an opinion piece argues (Västerbottenskuriren). Read more »


2019-11-25
Transformative new deal with Elsevier
A new deal through Bibsam gives unlimited open access for Swedish research (Kungliga Biblioteket). Read more »


2019-11-24
We must discuss the new genetics
The breakthrough for the Crispr technique gives us new options for changing our genes - but a societal debate on its use is much needed, Lund scholars claim (SvD). Read more »


2019-11-15
Macchiarini gets prison sentence
Paolo Macchiarini and two other surgeons are found guilty of fraud and of abusing their positions (Dagens Medicin). Read more »


2019-11-14
Scandalous German animal experimentation centre to close?
Pictures of terrified, restrained and bleeding animals spurred a lot of anger when published last month. Now the centre will close, but still it is uncleqar when (Tidningen Syre). Read more »


2019-11-11
30 years after publication, a paper cited by creationists is retracted
Professor Dan Larhammar criticized the paper 25 years ago (Retraction Watch). Read more »


2019-11-10
Unethical research behind Nobel prize
The researches behind the prize in economics are lauded while the methods used have severe ethical problems, writes Bo Rothstein (DN Debatt). Read more »

Update: Replik från kommittén för Ekonomipriset (+ others)


2019-10-28
How academic staff escapes
Academics hide, play dumb, don't care or over-perform. Everything to oppose the system and administration (Science Norway). Read more »


2019-10-27
China tightens misconduct standards
China has strengthened its fight against academic misconduct by publishing new standards defining plagiarism, fabrication, falsification and other violations of research integrity. Experts believe the clarity will make it easier to discipline researchers who violate the rules (Ecns). Read more »


2019-10-18
Ethical vetting for case studies?
In the debate on this issue, Christer Sundström and the Ethical Review Authority explain their positions (Läkartidningen). Read more »


2019-10-11
How science has shifted our sense of identity
Biological advances have repeatedly changed who we think we are, writes Nathaniel Comfort, in the third essay of a series marking Nature’s anniversary on how the past 150 years have shaped science today. Read more »


2019-10-04
The Research Data Sharing Business Landscape
An overview of key trends affecting the landscape of actors involved in supporting the publication and sharing of research data (Scholarly Kitchen). Read more »


2019-09-22
New Journal Focused on Reproducibility
Cambridge University Press is launching a new open-access journal to help address science's reproducibility issues and glacial peer-review timelines: Experimental Results (Inside higher education). Read more »


2019-09-21
We Need to Talk About Authorship Abuse
The academic community must move beyond compliance with standards and toward the cultivation of a greater sense of ethical responsibility, argue A. Susan & Jordan Jurow. Read more »


2019-09-07
Swedish Government proposes stricter penalties for unethical research
Maximum sentence is raised from 6 months to 2 years for doing research without a needed ethical approval (LmV). Read more »


2019-08-25
Your medical record is the new oil
There is a tug of war for medical records where Sweden's unique position resembles a newly discovered oil field (Dagens Arena). Read more »


2019-08-20
Debate on new biobank act
In Dagens Nyheter a debate has rised on whether a new biobank act should be enacted as proposed. Read more »


2019-08-18
How fake scientific journals are bypassing detection filters
A new study points out that the eco-system of predatory journals is evolving cautiously to bypass standard methods used for their detection (Down To Earth). Read more »


2019-08-05
Demands for new biobank legislation
The Biobank Act is old and needs to be replaced by a more modern legislation not hindering important medical research, says representatives of Biobank Sweden (Dagens Medicin). Read more »


2019-07-29
Japan Approves First Human-Animal Embryo Experiments
A Japanese stem-cell scientist is the first to receive government support to create animal embryos that contain human cells and transplant them into surrogate animals (Bioethics.com). Read more »


2019-07-25
Proposal on experimental methods not realised
The Government will not propose that new and unproven methods in health care be classified as research. The minister is open for further discussions on the matter, though (Läkartidningen). Read more »


2019-07-24
Prison sentence possible for doing unethical research
The Government wants stricter penalties for knowingly performing research without needed ethics approvals (Dagens Juridik). Read more »


2019-07-08
The Rise of Junk Science
Fake publications are corrupting the world of research—and influencing real news (The Walrus). Read more »


2019-06-20
Law on misconduct decided
Despite criticism from the Swedish Research Council and several universities/colleges, the Swedish parliament have decided upon a narrow definition of misconduct. The new law and the new investigative authority should be in place from 1 January 2020 (Universitetsläraren). Read more »


2019-06-17
Act now on CRISPR babies
Another researcher has announced controversial plans to gene edit babies. The scientific community must intervene, urges a Nature editorial. Read more »


2019-06-14
Plan U: an alternative
Through plan U, universal access to scientific and medical research via funder preprint mandates is suggested (PLoS article). Read more »


2019-06-13
Plan S on hold and revision 
Application of Plan S has after critique been put on hold for a year, until 2021. It has also been revised on several accounts (Universitetsläraren). Read more »


2019-06-11
Credit data generators for data reuse
To promote effective sharing, we must create an enduring link between the people who generate data and its future uses, urge Heather H. Pierce and colleagues (Nature). Read more »


2019-06-10
Stop gaming peer review!
It is a violation of publishing ethics to use the peer review comments of one journal to mature a manuscript and submit to another with a higher impact factor (opinion in The Scientist). Read more »


2019-05-25
Should case reports be ethically vetted?
In Läkartidningen a debate on this issue has started; do you need an ethical approval for case reports submitted to medical journals? Read more » (and see the view of Läkartidningen on this)


2019-05-09
Sweden closer to deal with Elsevier
After negotiations have strated again, Sweden might get a new business deal in place with Elsevier before the year's end, including open access to research articles (Universitetsläraren). Read more »


2019-05-06
Insufficient focus on ethics in animal testing
All animal testing in Sweden needs to be approved by an animal ethics committee. It should weigh the suffering for the animals against the importance of the experiment. Studies show that ethical discussions are largely missing, however (Sveriges Radio). Read more »


2019-05-06
Cabell's Blacklist positively reviewed
Rick Anderson finds Cabell’s Blacklist to be a carefully crafted, honestly managed, and highly useful tool for libraries, faculty committees, and authors. Read more »


2019-04-19
Hong Kong Manifesto for Assessing Researchers
A set of high-level principles for better assessing scientists and associated research and policy implications to both foster and reward research integrity is proposed by the 6th world conference on research integrity. Read more »


2019-03-29
Bullied into bad science
The Bullied Into Bad Science campaign is an initiative by early career researchers (ECRs) for early career researchers who aim for a fairer, more open and ethical research and publication environment. Read more »


2019-03-29
WHO panel demands a registry for human gene editing
The panel, established after a Chinese experiment produced embryo-edited babies, said all human genome editing research should be listed in a registry (New York Times). Read more »


2019-03-14
Global stop for germline gene editing wanted
A number of researchers – among them the innovator of CRISPR, Emanuelle Charpentier – are calling for a temporary moratorium on clinical use of human germline editing — introducing heritable changes to sperm, eggs or embryos — until the safety of the technique has been better investigated and acceptable uses agreed on (Nature). Read more »


2019-03-05
Gothenburg university criticised by UKÄ
Universitetskanslersämbetet (UKÄ) is critical about the way GU have handled two cases of misconduct in research. Among other things the university said no to a request from the researcher to ask the expert group at CEPN for a statement (Läkartidningen). Read more »


2019-02-25
Funders need to rethink Plan S
The quality of research is threatened, write 111 professors (Curie). Read more »


2019-02-18
WHO develops oversight standards for gene editing
Following international outrage over a gene editing treatment of human embryos in China, the WHO on Thursday announced it was assembling a panel of experts to form an advisory committee to develop global standards for the governance and oversight of human genome editing (BioSpace). Read more »


2019-02-15
Cheaters got a bad deal
Now the decisions on students cheating at the Higher Education Test (högskoleprovet) are starting to come in (Dagens Medicin Blog). Read more »


2019-02-10
Shared patient data – both promising and risky
Digital patient records and registries make new knowledge possible, but might also threaten personal integrity when patients are not asked for consent (Curie). Read more »


2019-01-25
New minister for research wants misconduct board
The new minister for research, the Social Democrat Matilda Ernkrans, plans to put in place a new system for handling misconduct cases in research soon (Sveriges Radio). Read more »


2019-01-20
Research ethics a priority
Research ethics and integrity has become one of the top strategic priorities in doctoral education in Europe, according to a landscape report published by the European University Association’s Council for Doctoral Education (University World News). Read more »


2019-01-07
New authority for uniform ethical review
Now the new ethical review authority has started its work. It aims to make reviewing faster, easier and more uniform, says the new director, Johan Modin (Dagens Medicin). Read more »


2018-12-24
Now all with VR grants need a data management plan
As from spring 2019, if you are awarded a grant from the Swedish Research Council you must have a plan for how the research data generated within your project shall be managed (VR). Read more »


2018-12-17
A pre-submission inquiry with a bribe
A case brought to COPE involves an author-to-be trying to bribe the editor (COPE). Read more »


 

Scientist crispr'd babies

2018-11-28
Late Sunday night, a Chinese researcher stunned the world by claiming to have created the first human babies, a set of twins, with Crispr-edited DNA (Wired). Read more »

AD dismisses misconduct finding complaint

2018-11-22
The Swedish Labour Court shuts down the possibility for appeals regarding research misconduct (Lag&Avtal). Read more »

The Replication Crisis

2018-11-19
In this radio program from BBC,you'll learn that many key findings in psychological research are under question, as the results of some of its most well-known experiments have proved difficult or impossible to reproduce. Featuring contributions from John Bargh, Susan Fiske, John Ioannidis, Brian Nosek, Stephen Reicher, Diederik Stapel and Simine Vazire. Read more/listen »

Most Chinese scientists write academic papers to get promoted, survey finds

2018-11-14
Nearly half of those polled said they believed the way the authorities appraised scientific research was misleading (South China Morning Post). Read more »

New perspectives on data handling

2018-10-25
October 3 a Nordic workshop on good data practices was held. It focused on strategic work on data handling, open data and use of the FAIR principles, as well as Nordic cooperation on these issues (Swedish Research Council). Read more »

Time is short for open access plan S

2018-10-18
Plan S är is a European initiative to further the process towards having publicly financed research results open for all from 2010. But the short time for implementation receives criticism (Curie). Read more »

Labour Court will rule on misconduct appeal

2018-10-07
The Swedish labour court will decide whether it will be possible to appeal to them when found guilty of research misconduct. In a report The Swedish Agency for Government Employers says that such appeals do not pertain to labour rights, but to administrative law, and therefore it is not possible to appeal. (Lag & Avtal). Read more »

Welcome to the Moral Machine!

2018-09-28
Moral dilemmas with driverless cars force you to make a moral decision. Then compare your responses to other people (and you help out with moral research too!) Read more »

Deteckting fake university degrees in a digital world

2018-09-17
Fake diplomas are not new and will continue to pose a threat to higher education for the foreseeable future, but recent initiatives involving digital diplomas in secure databases may be one of the most promising ways to combat false qualifications in the future (University World News). Read more »

Universities maintain researchers did misconduct

2018-09-06
Two cases of possible misconduct in research have ended up in court. In both cases, CEPN finds the accused not guilty, while their universities still claim they committed misconduct. - This illustrates the uncertain legal procedures we have now, SULF's Robert Andersson says (Universitetsläraren). Read more »

Editors resign after pressure to publish mediocre papers

2018-09-06
All 10 senior editors of the open-access journal Nutrients resigned last month, alleging that the publisher, the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), pressured them to accept manuscripts of mediocre quality and importance (Science). Read more »

New authority for ethical vetting of research

2018-09-05
In January 2019 a new board for the ethical vetting of human subjects research starts its work. Curie has spoken to Johan Modin, responsible for setting up the new authority. Read more »

Soon open access is implemented

2018-09-05
Recently, Science Europe presented a plan for how to speed up the transfer to open access for research, Plan S. All publications funded by the public should be open from 1 January, 2020. The research council is basically in agreement with the plan (Swedish Research Council). Read more »

Cheating researchers can get new chances

2018-08-17
University employees who are subject to disciplinary action following decision on research fraud have not been able to appeal against the decisions so far. Now Växjö District Court has, in a unique decision, given a researcher at Linnéuniversitetet the right to have his case tested in another instance. Read more »

Many co-authors without contributing

2018-08-02
Despite clear guidelines on co-authorship, over half of PhD's in medicine claim that the guidelines are breached. This is shown in a new study following up on an investigative article from Läkartidningen. Read more »

Increase in predatory publishing

2018-07-24
More than 5 000 German scholars have published in predatory journals, a new study from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists finds. Read more »

Individual research results should be shared

2018-07-17
A new report says individual research results should be shared with participants more often, and recommends a framework for decision-making (National Academies). Read more »

Karolinska must make new, thorough secrecy test

2018-06-28
A Swedish court has decided that Karolinska University Hospital must do a new and more thorough assessment of the confidentiality in a case involving giveing access to documents concerning possible research misconduct (Swedish Courts). Read more »

Government proposes new misconduct authority

2018-06-23
A new authority named ' Oredlighetsnämnden' will deal with misconduct investigations, proposes the Swedish government in a new referral to the Council on Legislation (Läkartidningen). Read more »

Stop for student journal-based projects

2018-06-15
From now on, no students at Uppsala university will have access to the hospitals journal systems for carrying out projects (Läkemedelsvärlden). Read more »

Stanford Prison Experiment massively influential - but a fraud

2018-06-14
The most famous psychological studies are often wrong, fraudulent, or outdated. Textbooks need to catch up (Vox).Read more »

Regulating research registries

2018-06-06
A Swedish public inquiry suggests a solution for how to regulate registry research (Ministry of education & research). Read more »

GDPR Special!

2018-05-25
What does the General Data Protection Regulation mean for research? Here are some guidance available on the issue:

False scholars - misconduct or not?

2018-05-25
The Vice-Chancellor of Karolinska institutet asks for clearer guidelines stating whether it is misconduct to to publish scholarly articles with a false name and university affiliation (Sveriges Radio). Read more »

Sweden cancels deal with publisher Elsevier

2018-05-17
Swedish research libraries now cancel their deal with the leading scholarly publisher Elsevier. The reason ? It does not comply with demands for open access (Universitetsläraren). Read more »

Will university researchers create ‘killer robots’?

2018-05-17
Campaigners fear a huge increase in EU military research spending will lead to development of autonomous weapons (Times Higher Education). Read more »

In a Big Data World, Scholars Need New Guidelines

2018-05-16
User information from Facebook and other social-media sites is invaluable to political and social scientists, but it must be treated with care (Scientific American). Read more »

Could be others with false KI affiliation

2018-05-15
KI officials have yet not been able to identify who is publishing vaccin critical papers in the name of KI. They cannot exclude the possibility of there being others using the strategy (Läkartidningen). Read more »

Gene breeding industry needs ethical committees

2018-05-04
Modern gene technology creates opportunities for breeding companies, but also provokes many ethical questions. To set up ethical advisory groups can be a solution to the issue of when and how to use this technique instead of traditional breeding (Mistra). Read more »

New EU legislation to protect whistleblowers

2018-05-01
An upcoming legislation to protect whistleblowers seeks to prevent retaliation such as demotion or dismissal, and safeguard their ability to shed light on unlawful activity. Read more »

The ethics of experimenting with human brain tissue

2018-04-26
Difficult questions will be raised as models of the human brain get closer to replicating its functions, explains a Nature comment. Read more »

Consensus document on working with research integrity

2018-04-23
The European PRINTEGER project has issued a consenus document on how to strengthen integrity in research organisations. Read more »

Swedish Parliament want stricter liability for misconduct

2018-04-19
The Parliament want stronger penalties for professional misconduct in the public administration. It says this will improve the rule of law and strenghten trust in public administration (GP). Read more »

Human studies often launched on faulty evidence base

2018-04-16
New research reveals serious flaws in the animal studies that regulators and ethicists use to decide if an experimental drug should be tested in humans (Reuters). Read more »

Research Fairness Initiative

2018-04-14
Fair partnerships are essential for research and development and the RFI intends to create a reporting system that encourages governments, agencies, and research institutions to describe how they take measures to create trusting, lasting, transparent and effective partnerships in research and innovation. Read more »

Researchers share data but find it a challenge

2018-03-27
Researchers desire data sharing but face many challenges in doing so, a whitepaper from Springer Nature reveals. Read more »

Should patients have a 'Right to try' experimental drugs?

2018-03-23
US lawmakers are trying to help desperate patients by adopting "right to try" laws for experimental treatments that may be given outside of clinical trials (Medical Xpress). Read more »

Peer Review fails to prevent publication of paper with unsupported claims about peer review

2018-03-16
It’s perhaps ironic that a paper finding no value in peer review is so flawed that its conclusions are untenable, yet its publication in a journal is itself an indictment of peer review, says a recent piece in Scholarly kitchen. Read more »

Advisory group reports

2018-03-08
As part of the EDPS 2015-2019 strategy, the Ethics Advisory Group is set up with the mandate to explore the relationships between human rights, technology, markets and business models in the 21st century. It has now published its 2018 Report. Read more »

Few caught cheating in research at largest universities

2018-02-18
Of 65 reported cases during the last two years, 7 have been pronounced cases of research misconduct, a survey shows (Universitetsläraren). Read more »

NSF requires sexual harassment to be reported

2018-02-14
The US National Science Foundation have announced a new set of measures to combat sexual harassment by people working on the projects it funds. (Science). Read more »

Suspicion of fraud not enought to freeze funds

2018-02-12
The government have made it possible to freeze funding during the time of a misconduct investigation, but the Swedish Research Council will not halt funding during an investigation, writes Sven Stafström (Universitetsläraren). Read more »

Ethical Shades of Gray

2018-02-07
In a survey on 43 different Questionable Research Practices, over 90 % of respondents in health professions education research admitted to have engaged in such practices (BioRxiv). Read more »

Experiment a recipe for terrorists?

2018-02-05
A recent paper describes how researchers assembled bits of DNA and resurrected in the lab a variant of smallpox. Authors claim their experiments might lead to improved vaccines, but critics have questioned whether the study could give terrorists or rogue states a recipe to reconstitute the smallpox virus (Washington Post). Read more »

Novel solution to the 'predatory journals' problem

2018-02-04
Alex Holcombe proposes an automated way to create a whitelist of legitimate journals for people to consult. Read more »

New survey on misconduct revealing

2018-02-04
Most academic and industrial scientists polled had either committed or witnessed unethical practices (Chemistry World). Read more »

European court suggests relaxed gene-editing rules

2018-01-31
Judicial opinion says restrictive GMO regulations may not apply to plants and animals bred using CRISPR technique (Nature). Read more »

Questionable tests on monkeys, people revealed

2018-01-30
The German government on Monday dismissed as unjustifiable any auto emissions testing on monkeys or people (Reuters). Read more »

A Big Brother future for science publishing?

2018-01-29
Will scientists be both the customers and the product of Elsevier? (Richard Smith, BMJ Opinion). Read more »

Controversial Monkey Cloning Success

2018-01-27
First time that scientists have successfully cloned primates using a method known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, provokes scientific and ethical questions (Smithsonian). Read more »

VR able to freeze funds when misconduct is investigated

2018-01-25
The Swedish Government has decided on changes in the instruction for Vetenskapsrådet meaning that decisions not tp pay funding can be made for a certain time. This makes possible a freeze of funding during the time of an investigation (Swedish Government). Read more »

Also read about a case raising the issue (Läkartidningen)

New regulation on animal experimentation

2018-01-11
The Swedish Board of Agriculture have presented a new ordinance on animal experimentation and ethics approval. It has been sent out for referral and here are the answers from the Swedish Better Regulation Council, Stockholms University and The Swedish Gene Technology Advisory Board.

Data Inspection Board to be Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten

2018-01-11
The Swedish Government gives Datainspektionen 30 million extra to strenghten their work on personal integrity. It is proposed that it changes its name to Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten and becomes more supportive and advisory (InfoTorg). Read more »

Arguments against experimenting on dogs

2017-12-28
The advances in neuroscience and related technology make the practical need and ethics for conducting tests on dogs increasingly questionable (Mathrubhumi). Read more »

Uproar over unregulated herpes experiments in the US

2017-12-23
Recent revelations that a U.S. researcher injected Americans with his experimental herpes vaccine without routine FDA safety oversight raised an uproar among scientists and ethicists (StatNews). Read more »

US moratorium on high-risk virus research lifted

2017-12-21
The three-year-old policy had 'paused 21 publicly-funded projects (Scientific American). Read more »

New code for health data by and for researchers

2017-12-07
A code of conduct is being created to help dealing with the new data regulation in the EU. Read more »

Sweden's new 3R centre opened

2017-11-30
Here vou find information on the new 3R centre (Swedish Board of Agriculture). Read more »

Expert: Make reviews public!

2017-11-27
After more than 30 years working with scholarly journals, Irene Hames has some thoughts on how to improve peer review (Retraction Watch). Read more »

OMICS lost in preliminary court ruling

2017-11-23
The Federal Trade Commission in the US has won an initial court ruling against OMICS, which the government says will help stop the academic publisher’s deceptive business practices (Retraction Watch). Read more »

An alliance for science society publishers

2017-11-20
"SSPA members are concerned that the proliferation of perceived high-impact, for-profit journals — most of which are not rooted in the scientific community — is damaging science by diminishing the influence of active, practicing scientists in determining the trajectories of their disciplines" (SSPA). Read more »

A Nonprofit Alternative to Research Gate

2017-11-17
Scholars are planning an alternative site on which to network and share work (Inside Higher Education). Read more »

Ethical principles for the use of human cellular biotechnologies

2017-11-13
A consensus statement (Nature Biotechnlogy). Read more »

Privacy Flag

2017-10-19
A European research project on personal data protection to assess the compliance of applications, websites, and Internet of Things deployments with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. Read more »

A Declaration of Helsinki for Engineers

2017-10-19
Climate change is a serious global problem and if the professional institutions take seriously the claim that a profession should be self-regulating, they ought to develop a declaration for engineers addressing climate change, the authors of a new article claim (Science and Engineering Ethics). Read more »

Will scientific publishing change form?

2017-10-10
This question is asked in an interesting new article in International Journal of Radiation Oncology by Anthony Zietman.

How to acknowledge bioresource work

2017-09-29
In a new article, Heidi Howard et al. asks "How to responsibly acknowledge research work in the era of big data and biobanks" and analyse "ethical aspects of the Bioresource Research Impact Factor" (J Community Genet). Read more »

Updated guidelines on peer review

2017-09-25
COPE has produced some guidelines which set out the basic principles and standards to which all peer reviewers should adhere during the peer-review process in research publication. Read more »

Favourite plagiarism excuses

2017-09-24
At a recent conference, the  National Science Foundation (NSF) Inspector General, Allison Lerner, presented the office's favorite plagiarism excuses (University of New Hampshire)Read more »

New bioethics journal

2017-09-02
...and it is called Bioethics Journal! Issued by Harvard Medical School. Read more »

Human embryos gene-edited

2017-08-03
The work, which removed a gene mutation linked to a heart condition, is fueling deba te over the controversial tool known as CRISPR (National Geographic). Read more »

Cabell's new predatory journal blacklist

2017-07-25
A first review of the list that aims to replace the well-known Beall's list (Scholarly Kitchen). Read more »

Include pregnant women in studies, urge researchers

2017-07-19
Pregnant women should not be excluded from clinical studies because this practice is unfair and potentially harmful, perpetuating the lack of knowledge about the effect of drugs in pregnancy, researchers insist (Onmedica). Read more »

Europe to Stay Open for Primate Research

2017-07-07
Should European researchers be allowed to continue using non-human primates in their research? For the moment at least, it should remain permissible, according to an influential European Union advisory committee (Applied Clinical Trials). Read more »

KI to demand electronic research documentation

2017-06-20
To stop new Macchiarini cases, Karolinska institutet, KI, will make it obligatory for researchers to electronically document their research (Läkartidningen). Read more »

Ethics must not be lost

2017-06-18
The flood of new health apps can bring about improvement of public health but there are also dangers that should be considered, writes Statens medicinsk-etiska råd in an opinion piece (Dagens Medicin). Read more »

Initiative for Open Citations

2017-06-13
The Initiative for Open Citations I4OC is a collaboration between scholarly publishers, researchers, and other interested parties to promote the unrestricted availability of scholarly citation data. Read more »

Swedish patient data sent overseas to private company

2017-06-03
When many Swedish hospitals measure care quality, they collect lots of data on patients. This creates ethical issues. Is it legal to send data to a private company overseas? Who guarantees the patients' right to integrity? (DN Debatt) Read more »

Legally binding agreement on human cloning?

2017-05-11
Since Dolly the Sheep was cloned, the question of whether human reproductive cloning should be banned or pursued has been the subject of international debate. Researchers argue that a robust global governance framework on human cloning should draw on recent successes in climate change and business ethics for inspiration (Springer). Read more »

Call for new cancer drugs suitable for kids

2017-04-28
The children's cancer foundation ctiticizes the new generation cancer treatments in their yearly report. These drugs are only tested on adults and thereby often cannot be used to treat children (Läkartidningen). Read more »

The EU Bioethics Council is back

2017-04-27
The European Commission has again appointed members to its European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (SMER). Read more »

Protection for research results will be considered

2017-04-26
An investigator will make an inquiry into whether the legal protection of research results needs strenghtening in order to fascilitate innovation (Swedish Government). Read more »

PubMed indexing no guarantee against being predatory

2017-04-22
A new study of predatory journals in neuroscience show that they are not listed in DOAJ, Scopus, or MEDLINE, but many of them are indexed in PubMed (article in Neuroscience). Read more »

Patient data should not have been released

2017-04-19
Stockholm County Council did not follow the patient data act when an external company gained direct access to patient data for inclusion in a research project (Dagens Medicin). Read more »

Sexual harassment defined as scientific misconduct?

2017-04-10
A major U.S.-based scientific geophysics society is on the verge of expanding its definition of research misconduct to include sexual harassment (Science). Read more »

Two researchers guilty of misconduct, says investigation

2017-04-03
A Swedish university has concluded that two professors studying tissue engineering are guilty of misconduct in two published papers (Retraction Watch). Read more »

New order for investigating misconduct suggested

2017-02-24
The public inquiry has now given its proposal (see right column with new documents). Read commentary by the Swedish Research Council »

Top Takeaways from the Common Rule Amendments

2017-02-20
A column discusses premier takeaways from the recent amendments to the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (Jurist Twenty). Read more »

A solution in search of a problem: Streamlining the FDA

2017-02-15
President Trump is calling for a massive overhaul of US Food and Drug Administration regulations (Bioethics.net). Read more »

No More 'Beall's List'

2017-01-26
Librarian removes controversial list of "predatory journals" and publishers, reportedly in response to "threats and politics" (Inside Higher Ed). Read more »

The U.S. final rule is now updated

2017-01-25
The U.S. federal agencies have issued an update of the regulations that safeguard individuals who participate in research. It strengthens protections for people who volunteer to participate in research, while ensuring that the oversight system does not add inappropriate administrative burdens, particularly to low-risk research (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Read more »

Updated publication guidelines

2017-01-24
The ICMJE has updated the so-called Vancouver rules, to address questions on predatory publishing, when to correct and retract, and more. An annotated version identifying the changes can be found here.

New organisation for RECs proposed

2017-01-09
In a governmental pm it is suggested that Sweden should have an organisation for ethical review of research that uses the advantages both of regional presence and the efficacy and uniformity that a central authority brings. Read more »

Statcheck exposes inconsistent p values in articles

2017-01-02
A Dutch researcher has created software that automatically extracts statistics from articles to reveal misleading p values. Read more »


The latest news are published on the start page of CODEX!

Last update: 2020-04-05

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