List of Contributing Authors ................................... xi
Acknowledgments .............................................. xiii
Introduction .................................................... 1
The goal of this book is to welcome researchers into the
community of question-askers .................................... 1
The problem facing new researchers is that research pressures
undermine vocations ............................................. 2
The solution is not RCR training or a series of unconnected
lectures and online exercises ................................... 4
The solution is a vibrant moral community and a coherent
introduction to ethical thinking ................................ 7
Research means asking questions and looking for answers ......... 8
Ethics means asking questions and looking for answers about
right and wrong, and good and bad .............................. 10
The plan of this book is to introduce the RCR topics
organized as an expanding moral circle ......................... 14
Part A - Protect my interests .................................. 21
Graduate students have diverse interests ....................... 21
... yet all have a common set of duties ........................ 22
... including the duty to avoid research misconduct ............ 22
Case study: "Can of worms," by John Allen ...................... 24
... and to blow the whistle .................................... 30
But is whistle-blowing really in an egoist's interests? ........ 31
Kinds of interests ............................................. 32
Rational egoism is the view that one should always act to
best satisfy one's categorical interests ....................... 34
How to proceed as an egoist .................................... 35
1 Report misconduct ........................................... 39
What is cheating? ........................................... 39
Is cheating unethical for egoists? .......................... 41
No: egoists have reasons to cheat ........................... 41
Yes: egoists have stronger reasons not to cheat ............. 43
... because they have their own internal filters ............ 44
... and are surrounded by cheater detectors ................. 47
... cheater detectors who disapprove of cheaters ............ 49
... and punish cheaters ..................................... 51
... and, furthermore, the community requires
whistle-blowing ............................................. 53
So, in situations of confusion and ambiguity, honesty
seems the best policy - even for egoists .................... 54
... and, furthermore, the community requires whistle-
blowing ..................................................... 53
So, in situations of confusion and ambiguity, honesty
seems the best policy - even for egoists .................... 54
2 Avoid plagiarism ............................................ 58
Protect myself against charges of plagiarism ................ 58
Can I get away with it? ..................................... 61
Exercise: "Recognize plagiarism" by Charlotte Bronson and
Gary Comstock ............................................... 62
Why words matter to the egoist .............................. 64
Conclusion .................................................. 66
3 Beware intuition ............................................ 68
Egoists must be conscious of observation bias ............... 68
... wary of misleading heuristics ........................... 69
... and on guard against self-misunderstanding .............. 71
... not to mention probability ineptness .................... 72
Case study: "Monty Hall" by Keith Devlin .................... 72
To safeguard judgments against prejudice and intuition,
engage others ............................................... 76
4 Justify decisions ........................................... 79
Give reasons to justify your decisions ...................... 79
... especially in borderline cases .......................... 79
Case study: "What's in a picture? The temptation of image
manipulation" by Mike Rossner and Kenneth M. Yamada ......... 80
Conclusion: some reservations about egoism .................. 87
Part В - Promote our interests ................................. 91
Graduate students sign diverse contracts ....................... 92
Yet all are part of one contractual community ............... 93
... in which giving reasons comes naturally ................. 95
... because we are emotional, social animals ................ 97
... and yet the community is constantly threatened by
unreasonable decisions ...................................... 99
Reason-giving contractualism is the view that a person
should always act in accord with principles that no free
and equal person could reasonably reject ................... 100
How to proceed as a contractualist ......................... 102
5 Articulate reasons ......................................... 105
Professional codes articulate two types of rules ........... 106
Common rules that members should internalize ............... 106
Specific rules that members should examine critically ...... 107
... and be able to justify ................................. 108
Case study: The Ecological Society of America Code of
Ethics ..................................................... 108
Background essay: "Utilitarianism and the evolution of
ecological ethics" by Gary Varner .......................... 111
Conclusion ................................................. 117
6 Write cooperatively ........................................ 118
Background essay: "Responsible authorship," by James
R. Wilson, Lonnie Balaban and Gary Comstock ................ 118
Case study: "Authorship: new faculty" by James
R. Wilson, Daniel J. Robison and Gary Comstock ............. 124
Guidelines: "Publication ethics: a common sense guide"
by Wesley E. Snyder ........................................ 130
7 Protect manuscripts ........................................ 133
A peer reviewer is an implicit contractor .................. 133
Background essay: "Peer review" by James R. Wilson ......... 133
How to proceed as a peer reviewer .......................... 142
8 Clarify statistics ......................................... 144
Collect data responsibly ................................... 144
... and guard its confidentiality .......................... 145
Case study: "What educated citizens should know about
statistics and probability" by Jessica Utts ................ 146
Conclusion: some reservations about contractualism ......... 152
Part С - Respect strangers' rights ............................ 155
Graduate students have various legal rights ................ 157
Yet all have the same moral rights ......................... 158
Moral rights theories are views that hold that one should
always respect the dignity of others ....................... 162
Case study: human pesticide toxicity testing ............... 163
9 Inform subjects ............................................ 169
Introduction ............................................... 169
What informed consent is ................................... 170
Why it's complicated ....................................... 170
Why it's hard to get ....................................... 172
Why it matters ............................................. 176
Background essay: "Informed consent and the construction
of values" by Douglas MacLean .............................. 177
How to get experimental subjects' informed consent:
sample form ................................................ 181
10 Mentor inclusively ......................................... 184
A mentor is a counselor .................................... 184
Background essay: "Mentoring" by Ellen Hyman-Browne
(Deceased), Michael Kalichman and Daniel Vasgird ........... 185
Exercise: "Interview your mentor" by Gary Comstock and
Charlotte Branson .......................................... 195
Case study: "Why 'female' science professor?" by Female
Science Professor 197 Case study: "NIH uncovers racial
disparity in grant awards," by Jocelyn Kaiser .............. 199
Conclusion ................................................. 201
11 Recognize property ......................................... 202
Introduction ............................................... 202
Who owns your data? ........................................ 202
Background essay: "Intellectual property" by Adam
Cureton, Douglas MacLean, Jami Taylor and Henry Schaffer ... 203
Case study: "DNA patents and human dignity" by David
B. Resnik .................................................. 212
Conclusion ................................................. 216
12 Reveal conflicts ........................................... 218
Introduction ............................................... 218
Background essay: "Shared responsibility, individual
integrity: scientists addressing conflicts of interest
in biomedical research," Federation of American Societies
for Experimental Biology ................................... 221
Conclusion: some reservations about rights ................. 226
Part D - Honor all interests .................................. 229
Research aims at a variety of good consequences ............ 231
Naive utilitarianism requires maximizing good
consequences ............................................... 231
... while assigning all like interests an equal weight ..... 232
But not all good consequences are acceptable ............... 234
Two-level utilitarianism is the view that one should
habitually act to respect rights but when thinking
critically should maximize good consequences ............... 235
... including good consequences for sentient animals ....... 238
Conclusion: how to proceed as a utilitarian ................ 240
13 Treat humanely ............................................. 243
Everyday rules for treating animals humanely in research ... 243
Critical thinking about using animals in research .......... 246
Background essay: "The case for the use of animals in
biomedical research" by Carl Cohen ......................... 247
Background essay: "Util-izing animals" by Hugh LaFollette
and Niall Shanks (Deceased) ................................ 253
Conclusion ................................................. 265
14 Preserve environments ...................................... 267
Ecosystems have utility for future people and animals ...... 268
Background essay: "The ethics of climate change" by John
Broome ..................................................... 269
Conclusion ................................................. 273
15 Cultivate responsibility ................................... 274
Background essay: "Wingspread declaration on renewing the
civic mission of the American research university," by
Harry Boyte and Elizabeth Hollander ........................ 276
Conclusion: some reservations about two-level
utilitarianism ............................................. 281
Conclusion .................................................... 285
Index ......................................................... 288
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