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Professional Ethics

Up to Essential Skills

Guidelines on ethical professional conduct in research and in teaching.

Authorship Issues
Lab Animals



A Victory for the Student Researcher: Chou v. University of Chicago
Duke Law and Technology Review. "For years, graduate and other student researchers at universities have alleged that the hierarchical system in academic research allows supervising PhDs to steal and patent inventions that were rightfully discovered by students. In July 2001, the Federal Circuit finally addressed these concerns by interpreting the law in a way that strictly protects the rights of student researchers. This article examines this long-overdue change in the law and discusses its potential implications."
On Being A Scientist: Responsible Conduct In Research
This National Academy Press booklet "examines both the epistemological and social dimensions of scientific research. It looks at such questions as: How should anomalous data be treated? How do values influence research? How should credit for scientific accomplishments be allocated? What are the borderlines between honest error, negligent error, and misconduct in science?"
National Bioethics Advisory Commission
National Bioethics Advisory Commission Homepage.
Scientists behaving badly
Nature 435, 737-738 (9 June 2005) "To protect the integrity of science, we must look beyond falsification, fabrication and plagiarism, to a wider range of questionable research practices, argue Brian C. Martinson, Melissa S. Anderson and Raymond de Vries."
One in three scientists confesses to having sinned
Nature 435, 718-719 (9 June 2005). "Misconduct ranges from faking results outright to dropping suspect data points."
ACS Ethical Guidelines
The American Chemical Society serves the chemistry profession and society at large in many ways, among them by publishing journals which present the results of scientific and engineering research. Every editor of a Society journal has the responsibility to establish and maintain guidelines for selecting and accepting papers submitted to that journal. In the main, these guidelines derive from the Society's definition of the scope of the journal and from the editor's perception of standard of quality for scientific work and its presentation.
Scientists Are Split Over Findings Of Research Integrity Commission
Billy Goodman, The Scientist, January 22, 1996. "Early reaction to a long-awaited report on scientific misconduct finds members of the research community no closer to consensus on the controversial issue than they have been after previous efforts to elucidate the problem."
Avoiding Misconduct in Your Scientific Research
"What are these ethically problematic situations where a clear right or wrong is not possible? And how can you find guidance in making the correct calls?"
At Lawrence Berkeley, Physicists Say a Colleague Took Them for a Ride
New York Times, October 15, 2002. "It's often said that the greatest thrill in science is to be first to observe a new phenomenon of nature. For nuclear physicists that means being present at the creation of an element, glimpsing for an instant a new kind of matter. But science's most painful experience is having to withdraw a claim of discovery because of an honest mistake or, far worse, deliberate fakery."
What Happens to Bad Scientists? - Lock the labs, sequester the notebooks. By Daniel Engber
"Superstar stem-cell researcher Hwang Woo Suk was accused of major scientific fraud on Thursday. A collaborator now claims Hwang faked much of the data for the groundbreaking research he published in May; earlier in the week, a co-author from the University of Pittsburgh withdrew his name from the work. Investigations are now underway in Pittsburgh and Seoul. How do you investigate scientific misconduct?"
The Unwelcome Discovery
New York Times Magazine, Oct 22, 2006. "Walter DeNino was a young lab technician who analyzed data for his mentor, Eric Poehlman. What he found was that Poehlman was not the scientist he appeared to be."
Integrity in Scientific Research: Five Video Vignettes
"The videos and this Discussion and Resource Guide are designed to help improve the ability of scientists, post-doctoral fellows, undergraduate and graduate students, administrators, and technicians to develop informed and well-reasoned responses to ethical issues that arise in scientific research."
Ethics Center for Engineering and Science
Resources and information from the Either Center for Engineering and Science from Case Western Reserve university.
Integrity and misconduct in research: report of the Commission on Research Integrity
"The Commission on Research Integrity was created by Congress in 1993 to address an apparent failure to solve the important ethical, scientific, social, and legal problems posed by allegations against scientists of misconduct in research." Here's their 1995 report.
And the grad students most likely to cheat are...
Sept 21, 2006. "Graduate business students in the United States and Canada are more likely to cheat on their work than their counterparts in other academic fields, the author of a research paper said on Wednesday."
Office of Research Integrity
The Office of Research Integrity in Health and Human Services.
Scientific Misconduct Policies
Scientific Misconduct Policies and links to sources of more information.
On Scientific Fakery and the Systems to Catch It
New York Times, October 15, 2002. "In some ways, the pivotal figure in the research misconduct case at Bell Labs was not Dr. J. Hendrik Schn, the scientist fired last month for fabricating and manipulating data, but Dr. Bertram Batlogg, the man who hired him in 1998. An investigatory panel cleared Dr. Batlogg, and all other co-authors, of knowledge of the deception. But without Dr. Batlogg's imprimatur, the remarkable findings in superconductivity and organic electronics, now discredited, would have been scrutinized more skeptically sooner."
On-Line Science Ethics Resources
A comprehensive list of links and resources concerning on-line science ethics.