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English language (monolingual) [PRO] Medical - Medical (general) / Clinical trials
English term or phrase:Principal Investigator oversight
I am having a dust-up with an editor about this and want to check my facts first, because I may be wrong. It was in a German source text and my first reaction on seeing "oversight" was that it meant some sort of omission or error, but that did not fit the context and it was clearly being used in the sense for which I personally would use "overview". Webster’s online dictionary as “management by overseeing the performance or operation of a person or group; watchful care, superintendence, general supervision”. I was asked for UK English though and have never come across "oversight" used in this sense, but "you learn something new every day" and there do seem to be a few instances of it being used in this sense in UK-based clinical trial texts. So basically I am hoping that someone is going to back me up and tell me that "oversight" used in the Webster's sense is ("primarily" perhaps) an Americanism and that I was fully justified in changing it to something that is not going to invite sniggers from a UK readership, but perhaps I am going to have to swallow my pride on this one. Any input very welcome...
Explanation: In both American and British English, "oversight" can mean either a mistake or supervision. It more often means the former in British English and more often the latter in American English, but both are correct in both. Exercising oversight is normal in official UK English. There are lots of Oversight Committees. I would use it here even though it is for a UK readership. If you were going to replace it, I think the word would be supervision (monitoring, exercising control) rather than overview (having a complete picture of what's going on). However, "principal investigator oversight" is a term of art in the field and is used in the UK in the context of clinical trials, and I don't think any synonym regularly is. The thing is that PI Oversight denotes a recognised range of functions which those in the field (basically the potential readership, I presume) will know. So the National Institute for Health Research, the NHS's research wing, offers a Principal Investigator Oversight Master Class: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/our-faculty/clinical-research-staff/l...
You could save face by pointing out that "oversight" as supervision is indeed more usual in American English, but as I say, in this context I think it's the word to use for all English-speaking readers.
I suppose it goes to show that one's understanding of words can depend on exposure to various forms of officialese. Oversight in the sense of supervision is certainly standard in UK administrative language. To take an example at random, the Care and Support (Market Oversight Criteria) Regulations 2014 regulate supervision of the social care market, not mistakes made by the market. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111124192
It's not Eurospeak, and I don't think it's an Americanism, though maybe its widespread use is influenced by American usage; I don't know.
The use of the word "oversight" to mean monitoring/control by a responsible person or body is normal UK English, not "Euro-globish", nor is it new. I certainly remember the word being routinely used in this sense in local government contexts in the 1970s, and it didn't seem like a neologism at the time. The term "having oversight" gets 12,200 UK ghits.
I have to admit my first thought was ´oh, no, what went wrong?´ when I saw the heading of this question. To me, it definitely means a mistake. Every language has its ambiguous words, and if that is the Euro-globish use of oversight and oversee, then we will have to accept it in those contexts. I would prefer ´supervision´ too, but if ´oversight´ has acquired the status of an official term, it is hard to change. Possibly influenced by Danish, where the only meaning of the analogous ´overse´ is to miss or ignore or regard as insignificant. Overseers, on the other hand, are unambiguous, though I always associate them with the Old Testament slave-drivers, whip in hand, in the story of Moses in Egypt... Not with responsible modern scientists.
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
16:21 Nov 21, 2017
I'm not sure about UK English but I know the word 'overview' only in the sense of 'summary' and 'oversight', as you say, only as something that was forgotten. So to bypass both, I would use 'supervision'.
Oversight vs overview: the former means having responsibility for overseeing (monitoring and control of) whatever, while the latter means a broad view of the whole context, but doesn't imply any responsibility for monitoring or control.
Thanks to everyone for your input. It would be nice to be able to use this forum though without people constantly trying to make one feel stupid (I am perfectly capable of that without any help) - "definitely used in everyone's English" is the latest in a long line of this sort of stuff, every single question I ask... Perhaps not meant in that way, but in view of past history, I am pretty sure it is. There are plenty of other questions flying around out there so please would the person in question keep off mine, because the constant sniping and voting for reclassification is frankly a bore and is one of the reasons that I hardly ever post ProZ.com questions any more. I would like to thank Charles on the other hand, whose answer seems eminently sensible and I will have to bite the bullet. Here is the context ""PI-Oversight" (Aufstellung der Prüfgruppe, Stellvertreterregelung, Anleitung und Überwachung der Prüfgruppe, Anforderung an Qualifikationsunterlagen zur Bewertung bei der Ethikkommission)"
Charles D. is correct. Here is an overview of PI oversight: http://www.barnettinternational.com/Web-Seminars/Principal-I... Principal Investigators (PIs) are required to provide adequate oversight of all clinical research activities at the site, whether the activity is conducted by the PI, by study team members, or by applicable third parties. Adequate oversight encompasses many activities and obligations, such as ensuring regulatory compliance, staff training, and subject medical care.
is German, he probably translated the German word "Übersicht" literally as "oversight" instead of "overview". I am permanently stumbling over English and French texts not written by native speakers.
Please tell us more about the sentence where you found the term.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
2 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +5
principal investigator oversight
use oversight
Explanation: In both American and British English, "oversight" can mean either a mistake or supervision. It more often means the former in British English and more often the latter in American English, but both are correct in both. Exercising oversight is normal in official UK English. There are lots of Oversight Committees. I would use it here even though it is for a UK readership. If you were going to replace it, I think the word would be supervision (monitoring, exercising control) rather than overview (having a complete picture of what's going on). However, "principal investigator oversight" is a term of art in the field and is used in the UK in the context of clinical trials, and I don't think any synonym regularly is. The thing is that PI Oversight denotes a recognised range of functions which those in the field (basically the potential readership, I presume) will know. So the National Institute for Health Research, the NHS's research wing, offers a Principal Investigator Oversight Master Class: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/our-faculty/clinical-research-staff/l...
You could save face by pointing out that "oversight" as supervision is indeed more usual in American English, but as I say, in this context I think it's the word to use for all English-speaking readers.
Charles Davis Spain Local time: 15:34 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 78