D1.Optional Reflective activity - plagiarism

This case was modified from an original ‘Related Research’ from Online Ethics Center 

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Consider the following situation:

Sam has been working on her PhD in a synthetic research group at A-1 University. Sam has enjoyed a lot of freedom in her research. Her supervisor Prof. Brain is also the chair of the department. Prof. Brain has provided casual suggestions but has left a lot of the details to personal initiative. The group also has relied heavily on the advice of post-doc, Alex, for research direction. He and Sam have developed a close professional relationship through working on related projects.

During her third year of research, Sam independently discovers a very desirable complex. Sam feels that if she continues her work and makes the succeeding derivatives of the complex, she will soon complete her Ph.D. requirements. Shortly after the discovery, Prof. Brain instructs Alex to help a new Master's student, Ben, get started in the lab. Alex the post-doc considers several possible projects for Ben the masters student and decides that he should assist Sam the Phd student, by synthesising a new derivative of the newly discovered complex. Alex assigns Ben to the work under his own supervision.

After a month’s effort, Ben the masters student succeeds and excitedly reports his findings to the group at the weekly group meeting. In the hallway after the meeting, Sam the Phd student confronts Alex the post-doc. "I have been working on that project for months," she states. "You had no right to assign any part of it to Ben without my consent. Because you detached part of my project, it'll take me another 6 months to complete my PhD!"

Surprised, Alex the post-doc replies, "If we don't publish our results soon other groups may catch on and beat us to it. I'm not going to be here forever either, and I need Prof. Brain to publish a major paper on this in order for me to get a job after my post-doc funding runs out. Don't worry, Sam, you will have plenty of results to put into your thesis."

Just then, Ben the masters student emerges from the doorway grinning. “Prof. Brain says that we should be able to publish this in The Journal of Great Significance if I can confirm complex C. Isn't that great?"

Reflection questions:

• Do you think this is plagiarism, misappropriation or neither? Why?
  
• How far along on a project must one be to have a any say in how it is handled? Is there (or should there be) an agreement between the supervisor and the PhD student regarding this point?
  
• Who do you think is responsible for the situation that has developed in this case?
  
• Why would Sam have a reason to be angry?
  
• Would she have an ethical reason or would the reason be of personal nature?
  
• How would you advise Sam to respond to what she has discovered?
  

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