HEDGESVILLE, W.VA.—Guidelines for coping with scientific fraud and misconduct may be drafted by a joint committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Bar Association.
Draft guidelines could be prepared and discussed at the group’s next meeting in the spring of 1988, according to Albert H. Teich of the AAAS. Teich is project director of the subcommittee on scientific fraud and misconduct of the AAAS/ABA National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists, which sponsored last month’s meeting here. The meeting ranged widely over such topics as types and frequency of misconduct, the role of lawyers in the investigations, and the behavior of academic institutions, funding agencies, professional societies and journals.
The value of such guidelines was underscored by the “war stories” presented at the meeting by leading actors in several recent cases. Their stories confirmed the fears of those who say that such accusations often lead...