THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

A Reviewer Learns the Fruitlessness of a New Research Project

Author(s): Elysa Koppelman and Caroline Whitbeck

You have thought of a new model that you see as leading to a promising new line of research in your field. To carry out your investigation of the model you need collaborators with some complementary skills. After much ground work you convince a rather prestigious group at another university to collaborate with you in this research.

You are collaboratively writing the grant proposal when you receive a journal article to review. The research reported in the article is very exciting, but it shows that your model cannot be right. You do not see any way to alter your model to circumvent the problems you now see with it. You realize that going forward with the project will be fruitless.

What, if anything, can and should you say to your would-be collaborators?

Perhaps there is a way to alter your model that you just don't see. How, if at all, can you approach other team members about altering it?

Variant: Suppose that you are the editor of the journal, rather than the reviewer of the article, and the reviewer asks you for guidance.

• Return to Research Ethics Module Supporting Pages

• A Fruitless Thesis

• When Funding Runs Low

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