Ethics
• What is ethics?
• Is it for ethicists only? How does it intersect with P&A?
• Ethics vs. professionalism
• Small everyday issues vs. sensational issues
• The positive vs. negative approach to ethics
• It’s not (so much) the crime, it’s the cover-up!
Ethics Readings (Physics Today 2004)
• Ethics and the Welfare of the Physics Profession
• What is the message?
• What’s new? interesting?
• Trust and the Future of Research
• What is the message?
• What’s new? interesting?
• The Scientist Code of Ethics
• What is the message?
• What’s new? interesting?
(Famous) Physics Ethical Dilemmas
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from the 20 century…
Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn and nuclear fission
Maria Goeppert-Mayer and anti-nepotism
Heisenberg and the 3rd Reich
Einstein and the nuclear bomb, WWII,
The 1939 letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin
Roosevelt can be found at http://www.dannen.com/ae-fdr.html
Oppenheimer’s security clearance hearings
Cold war, nuclear testing, nuclear fall-out,
…
In the News...(unfortunately)
On the Hwang Woo-suk story.
The New York Times online has several articles
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/hwang_woo_suk/
?inline=nyt-per
On Jan-Hendrik Schön and Victor Ninov fraud cases
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hendrik_Sch%C3%B6n
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Ninov
German defense minister resigns (2011):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12611570
David Goodstein on Scientific Fraud:
http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201006/backpage.cfm
Ethical issues you may encounter…
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Data Reproducibility
Deadlines
Negative Results
Recommendations
Referencing
(Self-)Plagiarism
Cut and Paste, Wikipedia
…
• issues you have encountered?
Resources
• ACM, Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics
• ACS The Chemist’s Code of Conduct
http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_
ARTICLEMAIN&node_id=1095&content_id=CNBP_023290&use_sec=tr
ue&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=d0a0b60d-4a02-45b1-98d72b0313b3ecc5
• AMS Ethical guidelines http://www.ams.org/secretary/ethics.html
• APS Statements http://www.aps.org/policy/statements/index.cfm
• IEEE Code of Ethics
http://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html
• NAP On being a scientist – responsible conduct in research
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=4917
• Sigma Xi The Scientific Research Society The Responsible Researcher:
Paths and Pitfalls
http://www.sigmaxi.org/programs/ethics/ResResearcher.pdf
“Ask the Ethicist” column in APS News http://www.aps.org/apsnews/
→ your peers, mentors, and colleagues…
Case Studies…
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Form groups of 2 (or 3)
Agree on one case study
Read the case study
Formulate your answers (in writing)
Present to class
Case studies (pick one)
A career in the balance (p.19)
A case of plagiarism (p.18)
A conflict of interest(p.8)
Credit where credit is due (p.12)
Fabrication in a grant application (p.17)
Industrial sponsorship of academic research (p.9)
Publication practices (p.15)
The selection of data (p.5)
The sharing of research materials (p.11)