Situation
Darlene Johnson, a sociologist, had conducted a study of relationships between children and parents after divorce. She interviewed custodial, non-custodial, and joint custodial parents and their children over a period of three years. Darlene conducted this work on her own while teaching at a small college. She had completed analysis of her data and written a preliminary draft of her findings, when she changed positions and joined a survey research firm which conducts national surveys for the U.S. government.
She has been working at this firm for two years. Darlene works very long hours and often travels in connection with her new job. She has not found any time to complete work on her study of divorce. Periodically she hears from colleagues interested in the findings of her study. Darlene is reluctant to send her preliminary draft of results because it is incomplete. However, she realizes that as long as she remains at her current job, she will not have the time to finalize her paper on the study.
Questions
- Is Darlene obligated to write-up and disseminate the results of her study of divorce?
- Are there ways that Darlene could complete and disseminate her results? Should she send the existing draft to colleagues who request it?
Discussion
Darlene’s change in jobs is an unanticipated event that is a legitimate reason for not being able to do further work on the study. However, in addition to not providing colleagues with her results, Darlene has not fulfilled an obligation to the study interviewees, who were told that the results would be reported, with the potential benefit of contributing to the understanding of the effects of divorce on family members.
It appears that she has not considered ways to make it possible for her to provide the results of her work. Some avenues Darlene might explore:
- Requesting a short period of release time from work to complete the draft, preparing a “working paper” that can be disseminated and cited by colleagues who have requested the results;
- Asking a colleague still working in this area to take the lead in completing the paper and becoming a co-author;
- Providing the paper “as is”, as a draft, so colleagues can benefit from (and acknowledge) the results of her empirical work.
