Underdetermined Interests: Scientific ‘Goods’ and Animal Welfare.

Abstract

It is well known that the culture within which actors such as scientists and clinicians operate is structured by the mechanisms through which institutional rewards are distributed (Garfield 1979). In the biosciences, citation counts are the accepted markers of a researcher's originality and competence that permit access to funding, promotion and other forms of institutional support. Osborne and colleagues' (2009) study suggests that beneath this publication-driven reward system is a widespread indifference on the part of journals to the ethical/welfare issues that surround the use of animals for the purposes of science. Although the promotion of animal welfare is not necessarily a goal of the vast majority of scientific research, it is arguable that those who distribute the institutional rewards should also be accountable for the harms that occur during efforts directed at their attainment. Other studies of the effects of the dictum “publish or perish” on medicine and sciences such as psychology and ecology indicate that within this professional structure of reward through publication, editorial policies are one of the few levers that can rapidly affect a wholesale change to research practices (Fidler et al. 2004). Consequently the move to assign some responsibility to journals for the maintenance and promotion of animal welfare is a simple but significant step that could change the way the biosciences utilize non-human animals. Although we heartily commend Osborne and colleagues (2009) because their study should provoke some worthwhile ideas and their proposal has a great deal of merit, we believe that any change to editorial policies could, and in fact should, be extended to address other concerns beyond improving animal welfare. Our position is that any editorial prescription for what constitutes ‘good’ animalbased science should also ensure that scientists are aware that the ethical permissibility of their research depends in part on the purpose for which it is undertaken, and the just distribution of any benefits.