Prof. Susan Wolf and Colleagues Publish New Research in Hastings Center Report About Research Ethics

Professor Susan Wolf and colleagues published new research in the Hastings Center Report examining the evolving research ethics for big team science in research networks. The new article maps the huge challenges facing research networks built to span multiple institutions in big team science. “Filling the Network Gap in Research Ethics: Analyzing Ethical Issues at Scale in Big Team Science” grows out of the NSF-funded NetEthics project, led by Prof. Wolf, chair of the Consortium on Law and Values. 

Wolf and co-authors argue that traditional research ethics has focused on the ethical obligations of individual researchers and small teams. “This groundbreaking article opens a new frontier in research ethics,” said Wolf. “[It will help] to address the challenges facing big research groups coordinating across diverse labs and institutions.”

But with scientific research increasingly conducted by large, multidisciplinary teams spanning far-flung institutions, research ethics urgently needs to address the challenges these networks face. These can include “conflicting approaches to data sharing and authorship, research misconduct undetected by distant collaborators, trainees facing conflicting demands in multi-laboratory collaborations, community partners and research participants mystified by inconsistent messaging and approaches across the network,” and more. This pioneering research presents new work to scale research ethics to the networked realities of 21st-century science.