SCIENTIFIC ETHICS:
Two Former Grad Students Sue Over Alleged Misuse of Ideas
Eliot Marshall
Two former Ph.D. candidates have sued professors, alleging misappropriation of research and charging their universities with complicity. Both cases--one involving Cornell University and the other, Columbia University--revolve around the prickly academic issue of who owns ideas, especially in the unequal pairing of professor and student. The universities say that's not a question for the courts to decide, but the students say that academic grievance procedures failed them. Both cases could come up for review this spring in state courts.