Ethical Conduct of Research
We will conduct our research with integrity and intellectual honesty, and show the greatest care for human or animal subjects-
This means that each member of the campus community to whom this standard applies
- Conducts research with integrity and intellectual honesty
Perspective: A Real World Illustration
A March 2005 Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) newspaper article reported on a controversial professor teaching at a public university located in Colorado.
The university took the first step in a process that could lead to the professor's termination. The chancellor of the university determined allegations of plagiarism and fraud in the tenured professor's writings were serious enough to be referred to a standing university committee that investigates research misconduct. That committee will also determine if the professor's disputed claim to be an American Indian is a violation of academic standards.
The professor insisted that he will be cleared of the findings against him. "The allegations that have been made are politically motivated, they are an attempt to backfill baseless charges that were made in the first instance, and they will be easily disproved," he said. "And if anyone had talked to me in the course of this preliminary investigation, they would have been fully apprised of the frivolous nature of the charges."
The professor became the object of nationwide condemnation in January when an essay he wrote shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks came to light. In it, the professor compared some victims to the notorious Nazi Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust.
The university board of regents voted unanimously on Feb. 3 to ask the chancellor to conduct a preliminary investigation into the professor's writings and record to determine whether or not there was cause for his possible dismissal. If the standing committee finds that he has violated university standards, the chancellor and the regents will have the final say over whether or not he is fired.
The chancellor said the professor's comments about 9/11 were protected by the First Amendment. But he made it clear that the allegations of academic fraud could be enough to end his career at the university. "Research misconduct is one of the most serious allegations against a faculty member," said the chancellor.
In the preliminary investigation just concluded, the chancellor and two deans reviewed more than 100 of the professor's books and articles. They found that his statements advocating violence against the U.S. government were protected speech under the First Amendment. But the trio also found evidence that he may have engaged in academic fraud. They pointed to a series of allegations against the professor.
A professor from a another university located in the southwest, has alleged that the professor misrepresented an important statute in federal Indian law, the General Allotment Act of 1887, intentionally distorting the act, falsely portraying it as a "formal eugenics code" that established blood standards for tribal membership. He says the professor continued to make this a keystone of his research, even after being challenged on the facts. He also claimed the professor lifted a passage from a 1992 essay by another scholar for an essay he wrote in 1993.
A professor from another university has alleged that the professor promulgated a false story that the Army deliberately distributed smallpox-infested blankets to Mandan Indians in 1837, causing the deaths of 100,000 people.
Another professor from a Canadian university accused him of plagiarizing her work in an essay that appeared in a book. She also accused the professor of threatening her in a late-night telephone call.
Last Revised 5/23/2006