There are scientists for whom a course in research ethics will be less useful. Efraim Racker,1 in a 1989
article, described a student in his lab who was a “professional” fabricator of data. This student composed
lab books without performing experiments, added radioactive material to gels to produce bands where he
wished those bands to be, and lied to his colleagues about his actions. Another researcher, Elias Alsabti,
described by D. J. Miller,2 was a meticulous plagiarizer. This physician-researcher fabricated his
curriculum vitae, copied a colleague’s grant for his own use, published other people’s data under his own
name, and co-authored his pilfered data with fictitious collaborators. Individuals such as these are
unlikely to learn research ethics through instruction because they are not interested in becoming ethical
practitioners.