Ethics Blog Post on Case of Wan, Yihong

I chose the Case of Wan, Yihong. https://ori.hhs.gov/content/case-summary-wan-yihong

This case is about Dr. Yihong Wan engaging in research misconduct in research supported by U. S Public Health Service (PHS) funds, specifically National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney (NIDDK), National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant R01 DK089113. Dr. Wan was an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSMC). About her research misconduct, Dr. Wan falsified and/or fabricated data by altering or creating Excel data table values for more samples that did not exist or were not analyzed and by falsely stating means and standard deviations calculated from experiments with N values (i.e., number of mouse samples) that were larger than the actual N values in a published paper.

Dr. Wan was an associate professor, which is proof of successful academic achievement. However, once she falsified and/or fabricated data, there is an indelible stain in her academic career. She even cannot continue her academic career again. When I google “Yihong Wan, Ph.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center”, and click the first link “Yihong Wan, Ph.D. - Faculty Profile - UT Southwestern”, I find that “Page Not Found”. Maybe she lost her Associate Professor at UTSMC, and her academic career may be over because of these research misconducts.

I am really curious about why a researcher will engage in research misconduct. I believe that she has great research talent because she was an Associate Professor and she got tenure in 2015. I noticed that the published paper that involved research misconduct was in 2014. Maybe this research misconduct made her got a good result of funds and paper and even her tenure, but what she got from the research misconducts is lost now, including her tenure and even her whole precious academic career. I am sorry for her. Maybe she did not have enough time to complete the fund's project. Maybe the completion of this fund's project is key for her to get tenure. Therefore, she chose to do those research misconduct. Maybe she “has to” for obtaining what she desired. But maybe there is another choice. Maybe she can arrange her time more reasonably and she had enough time to complete that funds project and paper without having to falsify and/or fabricate data. When I saw her case, I think a lot about what I should do to avoid research misconduct. Well, I got an answer that I can make efforts to do, which is making a reasonable plan to finish research work, TA work, and assignments. In the process of making and completing plans, I can balance my study work and life. Then I believe that I can handle my future research work one day I become a faculty in a university. I will have enough time to complete the fund's project and paper without having to do some unethical conduct.