Marston LaFrance lecture – the commodification of research

by Nicole Findlay

Rebecca Kukla, professor of philosophy, delivered the annual Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship lecture to an audience of faculty members and students on Wednesday, January 31.

Entitled ‘Paper is Completed – Author TBD’: The Death of the Author in Contemporary Scientific Research, Kukla presented some of her research findings from the past year. She has been examining the shift to collaborative research, which has blurred the line between legitimate results and those put forth through ghost-written journal articles financed by private companies.

Kukla’s interest in the topic began when she encountered a memo produced in 1999 by Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company, listing various articles they had commissioned for the anti-depression drug commonly known as Zoloft. Among the titles listed was “Sertraline vs. Placebo in PTSD – Paper is completed – Author TBD.” It struck Kukla that the research data presented in these papers – and subsequently published in reputable journals like Journal of the American Medical Association, could never be duplicated or authenticated.

Kukla discussed the findings of David Healy and Dinah Cattell, who identified 96 articles on the effects Zoloft. Of these, they discovered that of the 55 that had been ghostwritten, all published favourable results. However, another 41 papers that were not obviously ghostwritten, have had negative findings.

In addition to ethical quandary associated with the distribution of unsubstantiated research results to an unsuspecting public, Kukla also examined the epistemological implications of the practice. The philosophical approach to knowledge emphasises the knowledge acquired by an individual through experience, observation and reasoning, However, traditional views regarding the acquisition of knowledge are being challenged by contemporary scientific research, which is dispersed, collaborative and as a result not easily replicated.

Kukla’s research reconsiders what is knowledge and how it is produced. “Philosophers have to revise our ideas about how we know,” said Kukla.