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One and a half months have passed since I arrived at Uppsala, Sweden.
CRB (Centrum för forsknings- & bioetik), at which I am working, is
a laboratory for socio-humanistic scientific research activities, located
in the Uppsala BMC (Biomedicinskt centrum), one of the central institute
of European medical science. This center has published many works on regulatory
ethics on biobanking, and this is why I selected this center.
As a social scientist, my works here, during this period, have been on
mainly two topics. The first is an empirical and comparative legal study
on the Nordic regulatory framework on the human bioresource handling. In
Europe, some countries have played leading roles in introducing regulatory
frameworks in this field. This is especially the case in Nordic countries.
I identified some key laws which have worked as legal bases of regulating
human bioresource management in these countries: Swedish Medicalcare Biobank
Act in 2002, Norwegian Biobank Act (2003), and Finnish Tissue and Organ
Act amendment in 2001. These laws are aimed to establish standard procedures
of human biological sample collection and research usage, long term baking.
Recently these frameworks have been the matter of political discussion,
and all countries have conducted legal reforms. Norway has amended legislation
(2008) and, Finland has newly introduced the Biobank Act in 2012. I am
studying this discussion from comparative regulatory points of view.
The second is on paper retractions, especially retractions due to “unethical
research”. The survey on retraction notices shows that there is an
increasing tendency of these retractions to be published without enough
information attached to them or a consensus regarding what information
should accompany them or how to treat their “tainted data”. As I
have already done most of bibliometrical analysis, now I am preparing for
writing a paper for submission.
Using next two months, I am planning to continue the comparative legal
studies on 1st topics above, and will also launch a survey on research
ethics education.
 
Uppsala BMC Uppsala University
(My centre is on the ground floor of this building)
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