Kate Heffernan Quoted in “Colleges Get More Leeway to Handle Research Misconduct”

Kate Heffernan, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Boston office, was quoted in The Chronicle of Higher Education, in “Colleges Get More Leeway to Handle Research Misconduct,” by Christa Dutton. (Read the full version – subscription required.)

Following is an excerpt:

Colleges will have more discretion in how they handle research-misconduct cases under a revised federal rule released Thursday. The final rule, from the U.S. Office of Research Integrity, marks the first change since 2005 to its policy, which covers research funded by the Public Health Service.

The final version vastly differs from last year's proposal, which was criticized for giving the government too much oversight.

"This final rule has really pared back," said Kate Heffernan, a lawyer who represents colleges and focuses on academic research. "They were very responsive to the feedback that the regulated community gave." …

The timelines of each phase were also relaxed. Institutions now have 90 days to complete an inquiry and 180 days to complete an investigation.

Several revisions concern language, adding new definitions or amending existing ones. Words that guided whether and how research officers investigated cases lacked clear definitions in the 2005 policy. For example, errors were considered misconduct if they were made "intentionally, knowingly, and recklessly," and now those adverbs are defined.

"Allegations" are defined as complaints "brought directly to the attention of an institutional or [Health and Human Services] official" in the new rule. Because allegations by armchair sleuths are now frequently posted on social media and sites like PubPeer, Heffernan says the definition will relieve research-integrity officers who felt like they had to scour those sites themselves to ensure they caught everything. …