Q: What are the rights of a reader?
As a department chair, I received an email from a professor in my specialty accusing a colleague in my department with scientific misconduct and he gave what he thought to be a misconduct [sic]. He is [now] asking for a copy of the investigation committee report. He did not send these allegations to any of the journals where these articles were published. Does he have any right to ask about the result of the investigation or request a copy?
Thanks for your query. We shall refer this to our ethics expert and get back as early as possible. In the meantime, feel free to look around in the forum and on the site for similar queries and resources.
Ethics Committee (EC) reports should be available in the public domain. That answers the query. Yes, a reader should have the right to the investigation report. However, as of now, the practices of ECs the world over are not transparent enough. As for the research chair, you may take legal opinion on the interpretation of the charter of the concerned EC.
You may also refer to the following resources:
