Ahh, this is interesting. I took a look at the brochure and the affiliated faculty.
Malkin is emeritus, so no longer has a lab at Duke. I think at least a couple of the other profs are also retired. The thing that really stuck out to me is that only a couple of them list their main employer. They all list where they earned their PhD, but their employers are mostly totally different universities.
I think they’re getting around any legal problems a few ways:
- The main employer isn’t listed; the “day job”, if you will. These include Dickinson, LaSalle, Worcester State, etc. None of those are mentioned in the brochure.
- They are calling this the International Research Institute of North Carolina – so they can be employed as “adjunct” faculty through this place.
- All of these programs are virtual. So whether or not computational or other resources from the “day jobs” are actually used, it would be easy to say they weren’t.
- They must have their own IRB.
I seems that IRI-NC has established itself as its own institution, and hired these faculty as adjuncts. I wouldn’t do it and I would side-eye a colleague for doing it. Perhaps they do a better job than what I think they’re doing, but the guaranteed publication for the price of $10K makes me think not. I bet most of their colleagues don’t even know they’re doing it.