Commentary on ‘mentoring and the impact of the research climate’

Conclusions First of all, I would like to commend Roberts and colleagues for taking on a difficult but very important topic. It would be valuable if someone could follow up with a broader sample of universities and laboratories — paying careful attention to possible sampling and non-sampling errors. In general, I recommend that mentors explicitly both learn and teach ethical theory and practice within the context of their scientist development programs. Finally, while it is important to emphasize sound and ethical research standards and processes in mentoring programs, this should not be at the expense of an appropriate emphasis on skills essential to professional competitiveness, such as responsible, effective publication, grant winning, and demonstrably strong performance on the grants won. Dr. Gardenier is a survey statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The views presented are his personal opinions only.     

Changing explanatory frameworks in the U.S. government’s attempt to define research misconduct

Nearly two decades of debate have not settled the definition of research misconduct. The literature provides four explanatory frameworks for misconduct. The paper examines these frameworks and maps them onto efforts by the U.S. Public Health Service to define research misconduct and subsequent responses to these efforts by the scientific community. The changing frameworks suggest that closure will not be achieved without an authoritative effort, which may occur through the Research Integrity Panel’s recent attempt to create a government-wide definition.     

Phenomenological research on supervision: Supervisors reflect on ‘being a supervisor’

A study using a phenomenological research method was performed to reveal the meanings of the concept ‘supervision’, from the supervisor's perspective. Eleven supervisors of counselling and psychotherapy from a humanistic/existential framework answered the open question: “What does being a supervisor mean?”. Content analysis and frequency measuring were performed, revealing six groups of statements; six facets describing the experience of supervision: ‘structuring’, ‘teaching’, ‘nurturing’, the ‘supervisor as person’, ‘supervisor as colleague’, and the ‘triangle, client-therapist-supervisor’. Structuring was the largest category, and the first three categories together represented more than 75% of the statements. The results showed that ‘teaching’ and ‘nurturing’ were very similar in their importance, as represented by the number of statements in each. Further research should address the possible relation between supervisors' perception and experience of their role and the theoretical framework of counselling and psychotherapy in which they are based, The phenomenological research method in this study has shown the possibility of doing research on processes without ‘betraying’ the subjective perspective.     

Does U.S. federal policy support employment and recovery for people with psychiatric disabilities?

Evidence suggests that a high percentage of people with a psychiatric disability can recover--find meaningful work, develop positive relationships, and participate fully in their communities. Evidence also suggests that work is an essential component of recovery. However, few people with a serious psychiatric disability are actually employed and most of those who are employed work only part-time at barely minimum wages.To assess the impact of federal programs such as Social Security Disability Insurance, vocational rehabilitation, medical insurance, and psychiatric services upon employment, we conducted a qualitative study of 16 employed and 16 unemployed individuals with psychiatric disabilities. All of our participants had disabilities severe enough to qualify them for Social Security Disability benefits.They told us that current federal policies and practices encouraged employment and integration of only a few participants, in a particular stage of their recovery, and placed significant barriers in the employment path of others.     

Communication about DTC Testing: Commentary on a ‘Family Experience of Personal Genomics’

This paper provides a commentary on ‘Family Experience of Personal Genomics’ (Corpas 2012). An overview is offered on the communication literature available to help support individuals and families to communicate about genetic information. Despite there being a wealth of evidence, built on years of genetic counseling practice, this does not appear to have been translated clearly to the Direct to Consumer (DTC) testing market. In many countries it is possible to order a DTC genetic test without the involvement of any health professional; there has been heated debate about whether this is appropriate or not. Much of the focus surrounding this has been on whether it is necessary to have a health professional available to offer their clinical knowledge and help with interpreting the DTC genetic test data. What has been missed from this debate is the importance of enabling customers of DTC testing services access to the abundance of information about how to communicate their genetic risks to others, including immediate family. Family communication about health and indeed genetics can be fraught with difficulty. Genetic health professionals, specifically genetic counselors, have particular expertise in family communication about genetics. Such information could be incredibly useful to kinships as they grapple with knowing how to communicate their genomic information with relatives.     

Scholars’ preferred solutions for research misconduct: results from a survey of faculty members at America’s top 100 research universities

Research misconduct is harmful because it threatens public health and public safety, and also undermines public confidence in science. Efforts to eradicate ongoing and prevent future misconduct are numerous and varied, yet the question of “what works” remains largely unanswered. To shed light on this issue, this study used data from both mail and online surveys administered to a stratified random sample of tenured and tenure-track faculty members (N = 613) in the social, natural, and applied sciences at America’s top 100 research universities. Participants were asked to gauge the effectiveness of various intervention strategies: formal sanctions (professional and legal), informal sanctions (peers), prevention efforts (ethics and professional training), and reducing the pressures associated with working in research-intensive units. Results indicated that (1) formal sanctions received the highest level of support, (2) female scholars and researchers working in the applied sciences favored formal sanctions, and (3) a nontrivial portion of the sample supported an integrated approach that combined elements of different strategies. A key takeaway for university administrators is that a multifaceted approach to dealing with the problem of research misconduct, which prominently features enhanced formal sanctions, will be met with the support of university faculty.     

The ‘Radical’ Revisions of the Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms: Luther and his ‘Enemies’ (1517-1525)

Abstract

The context in which Luther wrote his original commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms (1517) was very different from the later edition at the time of the Peasants’ Revolt (1525). While revising his writing purportedly to update it due to his improved knowledge of Hebrew, Luther himself now read the words of the Psalmist through a new lens. He connected passages about the Psalmist's ‘enemies’ to those whom he himself struggled against during that period, in particular his ‘radical’ contemporaries. Previous studies that have compared the 1517 edition with the 1525 revision have examined only internal factors that may have influenced the revision. By taking account of the external factors as well, this study attempts to account for both what motivated his decision to make the revisions and the manner in which Luther changed the translation and commentary.