The proposed Supplement subverts the aims of scientific transparency in a manner that potentially harms public health, increases time and resource burdens on scientists, and threatens to reduce the ability of researchers to recruit study subjects. PRIM&R joins stakeholders in urging the EPA to reconsider the rule, so that vital, potentially life-saving research may continue. Read more
Sharing participant research data is critical to supporting reproducibility and collaboration in the scientific community, and leads to more reliable, effective results for research and eventual clinical application. But honesty and transparency are also critical when communicating to participants about these activities. Read more
On April 30, 2018, the EPA published in the Federal Register a proposed rule titled, Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science. The rule would prohibit the EPA from basing regulatory action on scientific studies for which the underlying raw data and models are not publicly available “in a manner sufficient for validation and analysis.” According to the notice, the proposed rule is “designed to increase transparency in the preparation, identification, and use of science in policymaking.” On its face, this sounds good; however, many in the scientific community are expressing deep concern that this proposed rule is actually a way for EPA to limit the types of science it can and will use in regulatory decision-making, to the detriment of environmental policy and the public’s health. Comments on the proposed rule are due May 30. Read more
This week’s Research Ethics Roundup looks at why researchers are not enrolling pregnant women in the early phases of Zika vaccine research, a new LGBTQ study that seeks to address participants’ health concerns, a new study that shows the sex of a mouse affects certain traits, and Dr. Susan Reverby’s case for making changes to a monument that fails to note how a prominent gynecologist used slaves in his experiments. Read more
This week’s Research Ethics Roundup reviews the ways research with biospecimens has changed since Henrietta Lacks' story made news, how the National Institutes of Health (NIH)'s grant application changes focus on transparency in preclinical research, how ethicists can avoid stereotyping prisoners who choose to participate in research, and how one of the top research search engines is improving transparency efforts. Read more
