Case Study in Review Integrity: Sharing an Application Being Reviewed

A series to raise awareness, encourage dialog and inspire creative problem solving of the challenges in maintaining integrity in peer review Sharing an application with anyone who has not been officially designated to participate in the peer review process is a big no-no. It undermines the integrity of peer review. It disregards the confidentiality that is required of peer reviewers, who specifically sign a confidentiality agreement before accessing the applications. And it is specifically prohibited by NIH peer review policy. We have a case for you where this sharing occurred (based on a true story; details have been changed slightly and names have been fictionalized). Read on to see how it ended. Researcher A had been invited by Researcher Z to collaborate on an upcoming project by providing expertise for a new grant application where Researcher Z was a Principal Investigator.  Researcher A gave suggestions for an imaging protocol in the application. During the back and forth, Researcher A learned that Researcher Z was reviewing a grant application with an imaging protocol that might be helpful.  Researcher Z then shared a screen shot of the protocol, copied it and emailed it to Researcher A. How did Researcher A react? Researcher A reported the incident to NIH officials and provided the email from Researcher Z and screenshot of the imaging protocol from the application.  Researcher A informed NIH that Researcher Z had suggested that they should copy and then slightly mo...
Source: NIH Extramural Nexus - Category: Research Authors: Tags: blog Open Mike case study Peer review Source Type: funding