Australia needs science watchdog: academic

Australia needs a separate statutory body to investigate scientific fraud and misconduct, according to Sydney University academic Assoc Prof Merilyn Walton.

Walton, an academic at the university's Department of Medical Education, said that Australia did not have adequate structures in place to monitor scientific behaviour, and that the incidences of scientific misconduct were difficult to detect," Walton told Australian Biotechnology News.

In the US there is a statutory body, she said, the Office of Research Integrity, set up in the late 1980s to monitor and investigate scientific fraud and misconduct.

"It's got teeth," Walton said. "Australia is lagging behind."

Currently, the NHMRC has a protocol that is designed to allow institutions to do their own investigations into allegations of scientific misconduct. Walton was critical of the protocol, saying that potential conflicts of interest made it difficult for institutions to do their own investigations as adverse outcomes could prejudice their reputations and affect their capacity to get grants.

The issue has been in the headlines lately over allegations against a UNSW researcher. Those allegations where subsequently refuted by an internal review at the University.

In that review the University of New South Wales announced that it had cleared a senior scientist, Dr Bruce Hall, against several complaints.

The UNSW inquiry found:

• that there was no basis to conclude that Hall had wilfully perpetrated scientific fraud or deliberately engaged in scientific misconduct
• that there was no evidence to support a complaint that Hall had mismanaged National Health and Medical Research Council funds, and
• that Hall's wife, Dr Suzanne Hodgkinson, was rightfully named as co-inventor on a patent by Hall.

However, the inquiry said of the first finding above, "there were some matters identified which require attention and some matters where the validity of data is yet to be determined."

The UNSW report has gone to the NHMRC and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).