Purpose To assess how resident and attending ophthalmologists perceive and evaluate ethically controversial scenarios regarding mentorship, authorship, and ethics compliance that may occur during research involving residents.

Methods An online survey was developed and contained 14 controversial vignettes based on common research scenarios that can occur when conducting research with trainees. The scenarios were designed to capture issues regarding three themes: mentorship, authorship, and compliance with ethical guidelines. Resident and attending ophthalmologists at eight military and civilian academic residency programs in the United States were invited to participate. Respondents used a Likert scale to assess the ethicality of the situations in addition to self-reported demographic characteristics.

Results The response rate was 35.6% (77/216), consisting of 37.7% (n = 29) residents and 62.3% (n = 48) attendings. More attending ophthalmologists responded than residents (p = 0.004). Many respondents identified controversies around compliance (67.3%) and authorship (57.1%) as unethical, whereas situations regarding mentorship were largely viewed as neutral to ethical (68.0%). Responses to two scenarios, one regarding mentorship and one regarding authorship, significantly differed between residents and attendings (p = 0.001 and p = 0.022, respectively).

Conclusion Academic ophthalmologists' perceptions of the ethicality of common research scenarios varied. There is a need for more prescriptive guidelines for authorship and mentorship ethics at all training levels to ensure consistency, fairness, and integrity of research.

R.W.P. is on the Board of Trustees at the AAO and Colorado Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons and served as a consultant for Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company. A.L. is a consultant for Regeneron. Otherwise, all authors have no conflicts to disclose. The preliminary analyses of these data were presented at the Annual American Academy of Ophthalmology Meeting in 2021.

*These authors contributed equally as co-first authors.

+Dr. Tsou is currently in residency at Albany Medical College.

Received: 08 November 2022

Accepted: 10 August 2023

Article published online:
07 November 2023

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