Dr. Adil Shamoo has published his message as outgoing Editor-in-Chief of Accountability in Research, the journal he founded and ran for 33 years. As I assume Editorship of the Journal, I want to pause and reflect on his accomplishments both with the Journal and in the field of research integrity in general.
Dr. Shamoo was an early scholar in the area of research integrity, and by initiating the Journal, helped to cement research integrity as an area of serious scholarly study. He has degrees in physics and biophysics, but is also a well-rounded scholar, making him an ideal person to found the Journal. As he expressed on the first page of the first issue, “It is our hope that the journal will serve as a catalyst for the development of specific procedures and standards for acquiring, analyzing, and auditing data. Accountability in Research will speak to a broad, interdisciplinary range of scientists and administrators in academia, industry, and government.” Accountability in Research is now publishing its 28th volume, having expanded its size several times over the ensuing decades under his leadership, demonstrating the foresight of this vision.
Dr. Shamoo also served as a Clinton appointee to the National Research Protections Advisory Committee (NRPAC), and as a Bush and Obama appointee on the Defense Health Board (DHB). He chaired the Medical Ethics Subcommittee of the DHB, which approved “Ethical Guidelines and Practices for U.S. Military Medical Professionals” and sent it to the Department of Defense. Meanwhile, with Dr. David Resnik (an Accountability in Research Associate Editor), Dr. Shamoo has edited three editions of Responsible Conduct of Research (Oxford University Press), a foundational textbook for the teaching of research integrity. With all of this, his service on multiple bioethics and research integrity advisory boards, and his own hundreds of publications, Dr. Shamoo has been a true founder of the field of research integrity.
I am honored to be able to thank him publicly for his many and significant contributions to the field, and for entrusting me with the Editorship of the Journal. The Journal will always be a home for the kind of scholarship on integrity in research that Dr. Shamoo intended, and research will be better for it.