The Academic Research Oversight Board recently revoked a biotechnology institute's accreditation for a novel therapeutic trial. The institute argued that revocation was unjustified because independent laboratories successfully replicated the treatment's end results without needing the institute's proprietary baseline assay data. However, withholding baseline data prevents peer reviewers from detecting potential selection biases in the initial subject cohorts before widespread clinical implementation. Therefore, the board acted properly in revoking the accreditation, even though no deliberate scientific misconduct was identified.
Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the board's decision?
- AResearch organizations should never be granted official accreditation unless all proprietary instruments and background analytical methodologies are placed entirely in the public domain.
- BAn oversight body may properly revoke a research project's official accreditation only if the project's investigators have engaged in intentional scientific misconduct or falsified their data.
- An oversight body is justified in revoking official approval from a research project if the investigators withhold data needed to evaluate methodological vulnerabilities prior to public implementation, even if the primary findings can be replicated independently.Answer
- DIf an oversight committee identifies verifiable evidence of fraudulent data manipulation in a clinical trial, the committee is required to revoke that trial's accreditation immediately.
- EAny scientific study whose underlying data cannot be inspected by independent peer reviewers must be treated as completely devoid of scientific merit.
Answer
The board's decision is justified by the principle stating that an oversight body is justified in revoking official approval if investigators withhold data needed to evaluate methodological vulnerabilities prior to public implementation, even if the primary findings can be replicated independently.
The correct principle directly supplies a general rule that links the specific factual conditions described in the stimulus to the author's normative conclusion. The stimulus states that withholding baseline data prevents the detection of potential selection biases prior to clinical implementation, even though the end results were replicated and no fraud was detected. The correct principle states that withholding data necessary to assess methodological vulnerabilities before implementation justifies revoking approval regardless of independent replication, thereby completely justifying the board's action.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Bridging premise-to-conclusion gaps using sufficient conditional normative principles
Estimated Time:1m 15s