ethics and the welfare of the physics profession
Post on 25-Feb-2016
37 Views
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Ethics and the Welfare of the Physics Profession
Kate Kirby, Frances Houle, Joe Hamilton, Peter Meyers, Rocky Kolb
APS Task Force on Ethics
An awakening
2002Perspective of physics community: the rigor of physics minimizes misconduct 2 data
fabrication events reported
APS issues ethics statements mainly addressing publications: www.aps.org/statements
Ethics task force charged with assessing the state of ethics education in physics and APS ethics-related programs, and recommending new actions
Scope
• Definition of ethics• The APS Task Force on Ethics• Concerns of the physics community• Lessons learned from investigations into
data falsification events• APS actions in 2004 and beyond
What does “Professional Ethics” mean ?
• Federal (legal) definition of misconduct centers on reporting of research results: Fabrication, Falsification, Plagiarism
• Task force’s definition :– Truthful, careful handling and reporting of data– Responsible, respectful interactions with colleagues
and subordinates– Adherence to APS publication guidelines, including
proper recognition of research contributions
What is not a violation of professional ethics
• Honest error in recording or analysis of data, provided errata and retractions are made promptly
• Honest differences of opinion• Personality clashes
Ethics issues outside of the scope of this talk
• Ethical application of the results of physics research
• Consideration of environmental impacts of research in physics
• Conflicts of interest • Use of scarce research resources
Sources of information
Surveys, interviews,
Web research:
APS Units
POPA Ethics chair
Physical Review
Related SocietiesSurveys:
Physics dept chairs
SPS
Junior members
Surveys:
Selected corporations
Large collaborations
The Task Force probed ethics education ethics awareness occurrences of ethics violations other ethics concerns suggestions for effective ethics training
APS Ethics activities prior to 2003
• Units focus on technical programs only
• Panel on Public Affairs (POPA) Ethics subcommittee writes statements in response to events
• Council approves statements on what is ethical and what is not
• Physical Review editors investigate publication issues (mainly plagiarism and authorship)
Surveys, interviews,
Web research:
APS Units
POPA Ethics chair
Physical Review
Related Societies
Surveys:
Physics dept chairs
SPS
Junior members
Academic Sector
Where do young physicists learn about ethics?
0 20 40 60 80 100
courses - formal
tutorial
courses -discussion
discussions withfaculty or students
research groupmeetings (if
member)
0 20 40 60 80 100
undergrad courseformal
undergrad coursediscussion
grad course formal
grad course discussion
research groupmeetings
discussions withstudents or colleagues
tutorial
Undergraduates Junior members
Ethics education in physics is largely informal “the silence that exists now”
Keeping a lab notebook: Do young physicists learn how to record and
analyze data?
0 20 40 60 80 100
creation of a researchrecord
acceptable practices formeasuring, reporting and
interpreting data
Junior members(all settings)
0 20 40 60 80 100
Accurate records
Data retention
acceptable ways toanalyze data
acceptable ways tointerpret data
literature searches
0 20 40 60 80 100
Accurate records in labcourses
Acceptable practices formeasuring and reporting
data
Undergraduates
In research groups
(if they participated in one)
In lab courses
The laboratory notebook
“It’s the freakin’ electronic age, dudes! “Formal training in keeping a laboratory notebook” is so 19th century. With little exception my data were acquired electronically, analyzed by computer (with pertinent results printed out) and are stored electronically. Of course in future decades the data will be unreadable, but as there are millions of bits of data no one could possibly read them anyway.”
an APS Junior member
What is a research record today ?
– What constitutes original data? What is the best way to conserve original data in electronic form?
– What sorts of records should be kept of a research project? What if the project involves multiple groups and multiple institutions?
– What is the best type of research record when most of it is in electronic form? How can the record be preserved for the future when electronic formats are constantly changing?
– Does teaching undergrads how to do labs and report the results help them create a record in today’s research settings?
How ethics-related topics are addressed in physics departments
0 20 40 60 80 100
curriculum
Lab courses
Dept seminars
SPS seminars
Chair-facultyconsultations
Student-facultyconsultations
10% of department chairs reported having knowledge of ethical violations
80% of chairs said the 2002 events did not lead to increased emphasis on ethics
Jr. Members Responses to Open-ended Questions
• 36% (267 respondees) wrote about what they felt were the most serious professional Ethics issues
• 30% (227 respondees) wrote about what Ethics training or educational activities would be valuable: “Anything is better than the silence that exists now”
Ethics concerns of Junior Members of APS
• Mistreatment by research supervisors– “abuse of grad students”– “exploitation”; viewed as cheap labor,
not as students– Lack of credit for work done (inclusion
as co-authors)– 8% reported pressure to do unethical
things
Ethics concerns (Jr. ) cont’d
• 62% of Jr. members thought APS guidelines on ethics should include treatment of subordinates
• 39% have PERSONAL knowledge of ethics violations during their time as a graduate student
39% of Junior Members have observed ethics violations
data falsification
not including authors
plagiarism
less than truthful reports
not citing prior work
delaying referee reports
putting nonauthors on papers
other
Career Pressures
• Pressure to publish a high volume of papers quickly in “elite” journals (Science, Nature, PRL) contributes to:– “less than careful treatment of scientific data”– “lack of careful referencing of previous work”– “desire to cut corners”– Unfair refereeing practices
Recommendations of the APS Ethics Task Force
Follow-up actions in 2004
1. APS guidelines and statements
• Recommendations:– Expand ethics statements to include topics other than publication: Treatment
of subordinates, social responsibilities, intellectual property– Amend current APS guidelines to address additional issues in publication
• Actions:– New statement approved in 2004 on ethical treatment of subordinates– Addendum to guidelines approved covering proper referencing
2. Education• Recommendations:
– Sponsor ongoing discussions of ethics– Develop long-term and short-term ethics education programs– Work to help department chairs and group leaders proactively address
ethics issues – Collect database of model programs and materials
• Actions:– Ethics education is important new focus for APS: task force on ethics
education to be appointed– To be addressed:
• Best way for educational institutions to promote awareness of ethical standards• Who should receive training and when• Development of resources and materials• Promotion of educational events at APS meetings and articles in APS
publications
3. Recommended practices for data documentation and retention
• Recommendations:– Protection of the research record in the electronic age – Awareness of legal requirements
• Actions:– Proposal for NRC study made in the National Academies– Sources of funding to be identified
4. International ethics standards • Recommendations:
– Work with responsible organizations (eg IUPAP, other international scientific unions) to develop common standards
– Include all areas of physics activity
• Actions:– Focus is on working toward common ethics standards and practices in all
countries– International association of physics editors currently working on
• Investigation protocols• Responsibilities of authors’ institutions• Alerts to plagiarism• Legal differences between nations• Frequent meetings to exchange information
– Some societies creating task forces like the APS’
5. Ethics committee
• Recommendation:– Consider whether to have formal standing committee on ethics
• Actions:– Possible committee discussed– Proceed with focused task force for education and reconsider later
Open issues raised by surveys and misconduct reports
What are the responsibilities of coauthors?
How do we deal with the pressures to do sensational work?
What are the responsibilities of co-authors?
• Discussed in Report of the Schoen Investigation Committee, Report of the Ninov Investigation Committee
• Relationships based on trust but also “the first line of defense against misconduct”: how to strike a balance?
• “Researchers unable or unwilling to accept responsibility for a paper should not be co-authors”
Responsibilities of co-authors (cont’d.)
• Joint responsibility for a work: “shared credit must be matched with shared responsibility”– Maintain a complete research record– Check each others’ results– Complete and careful verification of every manuscript
that carries one’s name– Circulation of manuscript to all authors prior to
submission for publication– Issue corrections if needed
What earns the status of coauthor?
Generation and analysis of data Supplying critical materials Analysis of data taken by others Construction of apparatus or writing computer codes used in work
? Interpretation of data taken and analyzed by others ? Securing funding for the project? Membership in long-term team with multiple related projects? Loan of equipment or codes? Consultations and discussions about project? Original idea for project with little participation in execution
× Honorary coauthorship × Authors’ management or Director of institute
• The perpetrator thinks she/he knows the answer and is just having a little problem with the data
• Experiments are poorly reproducible anyway so who’s to know?
• Career pressureD. Goodstein, Physics World, 11/2002
Seeds of professional misconduct
Junior members voiced loud concerns over a system
that rewards visibility over quality and provides incentives to cheat
Harris Poll, October 1, 2003: Scientists top list of “most prestigious occupations”*
Prestige: “Strongly associated with respect…widely seen to do great work which benefits society and the people they serve.”
*survey of all US adults
Thanks to
• The many APS members who answered our surveys• Roman Czujko, AIP Statistics department• Judy Franz, APS Executive Director• Martin Blume, Editor in Chief, Physical Review• Myriam Sarachik, APS President, 2003• Helen Quinn, APS President, 2004• Arthur Bienenstock and James Tsang, APS POPA chairs• Ken Cole and Amy Halsted, APS staff
top related