Ethics Assignment
Write a 2-page essay on some aspect of scientific ethics
Deborah’s culling of data (NAS book)
Rejecting data in general; extrapolating from data ( ” )
May’s plagiarism ( ” )
Ben’s nondisclosure of proprietary information (not in NAS book)
Working for an industry you oppose
Consulting for an industry that also supports your research
Financial conflict of interest
Mistreatment or exploitation of students or subordinates
Unionization of faculty, grad students (do research!)
Sharing research materials
Selecting coauthors and allocating credit (incl acknowledgments, reference citations)
Patent, copyright, trade secret problems
Anything else you please
Organization
State the problem explicitly
Consider alternative solutions
Choose the “best” solution
Conclude
Do not be afraid to do some research!
Example: Exactly when can you discard data?
What have courts said about grad student unions?
Slightly different rubric – easier to weight categories according to importance:
PH 472 - Evaluation of ethics report
Name of student
Content (60 %)
1. Clearly defines ethical problem
2. Outlines alternative solutions
3. Draws and supports conclusion
Form (40 %)
1. Coherence (whole report is clear, tells
coherent story, is well organized)
2. Sentence structure (grammar, spelling,
punctuation)
3. Formatting (title, paragraphs, references,
overall appearance)
Points Grade
20
20
20
20
10
10