Nov 10, 2003 -- The Office of Research Integrity at the National Institutes of Health awarded a research grant to Margaret Gibelman, DSW, professor and doctoral program director, Wurzweiler School of Social Work. Dr. Gibelman is leading an investigation of whether, and to what extent, universities in the US educate students in the mental health disciplines in responsible research conduct. The research team includes Terry DiLorenzo, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Stern College; Nigel Bark, MD, associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Alison Link, a PhD student at Wurzweiler who is assisting in the research. “There are consistent press reports about plagiarism, falsification, or fabrication in biomedical research,” Dr. Gibelman said. “But we know little about research conduct in the field of mental health.” The two-year project initially involves a survey of educational programs in social work, psycholo gy, counseling, psychiatry, and psychiatric nursing to determine whether and to what extent their curricula include content related to responsible research conduct. The second part will consist of interviews with deans and educational program directors to determine how research ethics are taught, what the obstacles are to including research training in the curriculum, and whether any models exist for teaching the appropriate conduct of research at universities. “Are we teaching faculty and students about appropriate research conduct?” Dr. Gibelman asked. “Unless mental health professions are educated in ethical research behavior, there is a very real possibility that breaches will occur.” Dr. Gibelman supervises doctoral student research at Wurzweiler, and is a member of the CCI, the institutional review board that reviews research protocols at Yeshiva University. She also served on a federal review panel for grants at the NIH’s Office of Research Integrity. She cited pressure on junior faculty to publish as one factor that may lead to ethical breaches in how research is conducted. Not all studies are subject to the ethical standards of bodies such as the ORI, according to Dr. DiLorenzo, who teaches research seminars at Stern. “We don’t know whether oversight measures for research in the behavioral and social sciences are effective,” she said. People outside of academic institutions or without federal funding, such as a psychologist in private practice, may not be held accountable, she said. Most research falsifications are found accidentally at the time of publication, said Dr. Bark, supervising psychiatrist and director of the Schizophrenia Research Unit at Bronx Psychiatric Center and also a member of Yeshiva’s CCI. “By making more people aware of the importance of research ethics,” he said, “this study will lead to a more systematic training of clinicians and researchers.”