Academic and Teaching Ethics

Pseudoskepticism, which typically is portraying someone's work as despicable with scientifically unsound polemics, is a modern day threat to the traditional standard of discussion in science and popular science. This opinion piece gives seven tell-tale signs by which pseudoskepticism can be recognized.

An essay composed of brief contributions from more than 10 academics about the war in Gaza in the light of the responsibilities of universities.

I identify two seemingly good reasons for obscure writing, one to do with avoiding plagiarism or near-plagiarism (which I have identified before), and the other to do with avoiding attracting readers who prefer accessible writing but nevertheless have no space for you in the structure of roles they envisage.

Note that this paper is 35 pages, and had been replaced in many places w/ a draft w/o authorization. -/- The academy, broadly construed to include faculty, administrators at all levels, and editors, referees, and publishers of academic work, is beset by more ills bespeaking of a fundamental lack of integrity than can possibly be enumerated in a single monograph; nevertheless, as the need is urgent, and everyone seems to prefer either silence or piecemeal treatments, myself heretofore included, five ills (...) are enumerated herein, then traced to seven deadly sins that beset the entire enterprise—although not in its entirety, of course—and some surprisingly simple, commonsensical, and practicable solutions are advanced. (shrink)

One of the most disputed controversy over the priority of scientific discoveries is that of the law of universal gravitation, between Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke. Hooke accused Newton of plagiarism, of taking over his ideas expressed in previous works. In this paper I try to show, on the basis of previous analysis, that both scientists were wrong: Robert Hooke because his theory was basically only ideas that would never have materialized without Isaac Newton's mathematical support; and the latter was (...) wrong by not recognizing Hooke's ideas in drawing up the theory of gravity. Moreover, after Hooke's death and taking over the Royal Society presidency, Newton removed from the institution any trace of the former president Robert Hooke. For this, I detail the accusations and arguments of each of the parts, and how this dispute was perceived by the contemporaries of the two scientists. I finish the paper with the conclusions drawn from the contents. -/- Keywords: Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke, law of gravity, priority, plagiarism -/- CONTENTS -/- Abstract Introduction Robert Hooke's contribution to the law of universal gravitation Isaac Newton's contribution to the law of universal gravitation Robert Hooke's claim of his priority on the law of universal gravitation Newton's defense The controversy in the opinion of other contemporary scientists What the supporters of Isaac Newton say What the supporters of Robert Hooke say Conclusions Bibliography -/- DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19370.26567 . (shrink)

What is Media Ethics ? Read in Marathi. पत्रकारिता या व्यवसायाचे स्वरूप एका चमत्कारिक विरोधाभासाने भरलेले आहे. तो असा की, पत्रकारिता ही पूर्णपणे खासगी नोकरी असते आणि माध्यमे हे खासगी क्षेत्र असते. पण त्यांचा चिंतन विषय मात्र निखळ सामाजिक असतो.

The rapid evolution of scientific research has created a pressing need for efficient and versatile tools to aid researchers. While using artificial intelligence (AI) to write scientific articles is unethical and unreliable due to the potential for inaccuracy, AI can be a valuable tool for assisting with other aspects of research, such as language editing, reference formatting, and journal finding. Two of the latest AI-driven assistants that have become indispensable assets to scientists are ChatGPT and Gemini (Bard). These assistants offer (...) comprehensive support from literature review to journal suggestion, and they have the potential to revolutionize research. In the present study, a comprehensive set of queries and responses were designed to assess the capabilities of ChatGPT-3.5 and Gemini as scientific assistants. The results showed that Gemini achieved a perfect score of 100%, while ChatGPT-3.5 scored a less impressive 70%. Notably, ChatGP-3.5 fell short in specific areas that includes providing assistance with scientific paper explanations, exploring bibliographic databases, and formatting references. The qualitative assessment of responses also suggests that both the AI chatbots can be valuable tools for researchers, however, Gemini seems to be more appealing and accurate through the whole procedure of scientific writing. This work shall open new research dimensions in identifying adequate scientific utilization of the evolving AI tools and technologies, as embracing these advancements will be essential for staying at the forefront of scientific research. (shrink)

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has profoundly transformed many people's lives, ChatGPT being a clear example, whose capabilities have substantially influenced the automation of tasks such as writing texts and providing information sources for researchers. This review article aims to understand the impact of AI on academic writing and why its use can be considered plagiarism. The Prism method was used to analyze the studies, which initially totaled 824, and after excluding them for duplicity and by title, a (...) total of 137 were left, of which we proceeded to review those that were open access and those that were related to the study, obtaining a total of 54 manuscripts closely related to the research topic; the results were then segmented into three questions, What are the text-matching tools that help to identify the use of AI in article writing?, What strategies are used to regulate the use of AI in writing scientific articles? and What techniques are used to detect AI-generated text?, which were key to comparing the results of the review with the findings of the authors belonging to the literature review. The results showed that, from 2022 onwards, AI became a recurring topic among researchers in China and the United States, allowing the emergence of popular techniques and software such as Turnitin or GPTZero to identify when these linguistic models were used in writing tasks, as well as strategies to regulate their use in controlled environments. In the end, it was concluded that there is a fine line between ethics and abuse of AI capabilities, and further research and study of different techniques is recommended to recognize when these tools are blatantly used. (shrink)

This paper attempts to investigate various facets of the multi-layered dynamics of open-book exams, from student perceptions, preferences, academic performance and satisfaction, to the highly relevant issue of academic integrity. Unfortunately, despite some controversies regarding academic integrity and the repercussions of open-book exams, very few studies have directly investigated the relationship between satisfaction and perceived academic performance and preference in open-book exams. A survey of 250 students from both science and non-science disciplines randomly selected from one public university was conducted (...) in Malaysia. An online survey was utilized to gather the data. Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling technique, a second-generation multivariate statistical model, was utilized to analyze the data that. This approach employs both PLS-SEM’s outer model and inner model. The findings indicate that open-book exams that do not undermine the overall academic standards are more likely to lead to students’ satisfaction. The high engagement levels might mediate this relationship by contributing to the perceptions of satisfaction. Additionally, the level of academic integrity was found to affect student satisfaction with the practice by moderating the relationship in the opposite direction. This study provides robust theoretical and practical implications on several interactions between the dependent variable of academic integrity, the mediating variable of student reaction, and the independent variable of student satisfaction and performance with open-book exams. This understanding is crucial for stakeholders as higher education’s organizational expectations continue to evolve and revolve around these variables to create a conducive learning paradigm. (shrink)

This study explores the micro-determinants of corruption tolerance among 1414 university students in Guatemala, a country grappling with significant corruption issues. By examining the attitudes of economics majors compared to students in other disciplines through ordered logistic regression analysis, we offer new insights into factors influencing corruption tolerance in a developing country setting. This approach, by focusing on a developing country, fills a research gap in the literature on the differences between economics students and their peers from other programs. We (...) find that economics students exhibit a greater tolerance for corruption. This result aligns with theories and research that suggest that economists show a profit-maximizing mindset, and distinctive values and fairness perceptions. Furthermore, our analysis reveals significant effects of gender and age on corruption tolerance, with women and older students reporting lower tolerance to corrupt practices. The study also uncovers the higher tolerance towards private versus public corruption. These findings provide valuable guidance for developing policies and educational initiatives to reduce corruption tolerance among future professionals in similar socio-economic environments. (shrink)

Academic cheating is a pervasive issue in tertiary education, with implications for the competency of university graduates and their future ethical workplace behavior. Past research indicates that understanding academic cheating according to its different levels of severity allows for a more nuanced understanding of its aetiological factors, and an investigation into dispositional traits can further aid this. The primary aim of this study was to explore the synergistic relationships between trait mindfulness, self-regulatory efficacy, and academic cheating intention using purpose-designed vignettes, (...) with a view to providing a foundation for the development of targeted academic cheating interventions. The secondary aim of this study was to examine these relationships in the context of minor and serious academic cheating intention (MACI and SACI), to better capture the nuances of academic cheating. First-year university students from an Australian university (_N_ = 200) completed a questionnaire measuring trait mindfulness and self-regulatory efficacy and responded to vignettes corresponding to MACI and SACI. The results of this study indicated that high self-regulatory efficacy was correlated with low overall academic cheating intention (OACI), as well as lower MACI and SACI. Self-regulatory efficacy also amplified relations between trait mindfulness and OACI, such that high trait mindfulness was associated with lower OACI, in the context of high self-regulatory efficacy. This result was replicated for MACI, but not SACI. Interestingly, no direct associations were found between trait mindfulness and any of the measures of academic cheating intention. These results highlight the necessity of developing nuanced understandings of academic cheating. They further point to the potential role of self-regulatory skills in developing future interventions, while de-emphasizing the relevance previously attributed to mindfulness in supporting students at risk of academic misconduct. (shrink)

Student evaluations of teaching (SET) are typically highly biased. In this paper, three experiments are reported, examining gender bias in SET by manipulating lecturer gender and counterstereotypes. Each experiment involved a vignette about a lecture, with a different context: Study 1 − noisy students disrupting the lesson; Study 2 − students asking for consideration; Study 3 − neutral context of a routine lecture. Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that the effect of lecturer gender on SET depended on the context and (...) was both directly (Study 1) and indirectly (Studies 2 and 3) mediated by gender stereotypes. The effect of student's gender was indirect and mediated by gender stereotypes in all studies. Counterstereotypical descriptions did not affect stereotypical perceptions in any of the experiments. The findings are discussed in terms of social dominance theory (SDT) and social role theory (SRT). They offer novel insights into the mechanism that explains gender and context bias in SET. In terms of practical implications, SET should be considered with caution, particularly when used for critical decisions such as tenure status. Finally, applying additional assessments and statistical methods to control for gender bias is important. (shrink)

The relation of social ethics to knowledge production is explored through a study about academic research enquiry on minoritised and racialised populations. Despite social change related to migration and ethnicity being a feature of contemporary Northern Ireland, local dynamics and actors seemed under-studied by its research-intensive ‘anchor universities’. To explore this, a critical discourse analysis of published research outputs (n = 200) and related authors’ narratives (n = 32) are interpreted within this paper through conceptualisations of consciousness. Insiders’ perspectives on (...) the influences and structures of the research journey demonstrate the ways in which research cultures (mis)shape the politics of representation, authorship and ethicality. Societal and political disregard for the new publics, reproduced within universities’ hidden curriculum, has been negotiated and to some extent resisted in the research practices of those marginalised (such as women academics), those entering the system (migrant academics), and those local-born whose referential frames were developed external to local universities. Of concern is that the few research enablers were characterised by techno-rationality and doublespeak, impoverishing the depth of theorisation, complexity and intellectual debate necessary for challenging the existing dysconscious racism and xenophobiaism of the social imaginary. (shrink)

The exposure of scientific scandals and the increase of dubious research practices have generated a stream of studies on Questionable Research Practices (QRPs), such as failure to acknowledge co-authors, selective presentation of findings, or removal of data not supporting desired outcomes. In contrast to high-profile fraud cases, QRPs can be investigated using quantitative, survey-based methods. However, several design issues remain to be solved. This paper starts with a review of four problems in the QRP research: the problem of precision and (...) prevalence, the problem of social desirability bias, the problem of incomplete coverage, and the problem of controversiality, sensitivity and missing responses. Various ways to handle these problems are discussed based on a case study of the design of a large, cross-field QRP survey in the social and medical sciences in Sweden. The paper describes the key steps in the design process, including technical and cognitive testing and repeated test versions to arrive at reliable survey items on the prevalence of QRPs and hypothesized associated factors in the organizational and normative environments. Partial solutions to the four problems are assessed, unresolved issues are discussed, and tradeoffs that resist simple solutions are articulated. The paper ends with a call for systematic comparisons of survey designs and item quality to build a much-needed cumulative knowledge trajectory in the field of integrity studies. (shrink)

This research investigates whether academic integrity can be strengthened through a holistic educative approach that combines compulsory modules on academic integrity, pedagogy that challenges punitive approaches, and an embedded curriculum. We present quantitative and qualitative data from surveys and interview responses from students to investigate their experiences and perceptions of our approach. Qualitative data suggest students appreciate the educative approach and that it fosters agency in students. Most participants – even those who indicated they had been part of an academic (...) integrity breach process and students who knew someone who had been involved in the process – expressed that the process itself led to a greater understanding of academic integrity generally and students felt they could address the issue for themselves and benefit into the future. Responses indicated students wanted to have a voice in the academic integrity process. This research indicates that a holistic educative approach promotes students’ agency in relation to their academic work and frames academic integrity as a positive and desirable aspect of students’ developing academic identities. (shrink)

The ethics of citation has attracted increased attention in recent discussions of research and publication ethics, fraud and plagiarism. Little attempt has been made, however, to situate specific citation misbehaviors in terms of broader ethical practices and principles. To investigate researchers’ perceptions of citation norms, we surveyed active US researchers receiving federal funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Participants (n = 257) were asked about citation (...) norms they endorse (norm reports), the behaviors they perceive others to engage in (peer reports), and their own citation behaviors (self-reports). Our analyses showed that while considerable discrepancies exist between norm reports, peer reports and self-reports, respondents’ discipline has no significant effect on these. Participants indicated that their own practices and that of their peers falls short of the norms they endorse, but that their own behavior is much less ethically deficient than that of their peers. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that ethically questionable citation behaviors could be grouped usefully into three categories: strategic citations, neglectful citations, and blind citations. Contrary to our hypothesis, the survey showed that greater experience does not always result in better citation practices. A particularly divisive issue pertained to intentionally citing authors from underrepresented demographic groups for reasons of social justice, but broad support for this practice is lacking, although arts and humanities scholars are slightly more supportive. Most researchers view questionable citation practices as negatively affecting their disciplines. Our findings suggest the need for clearer articulations of the citation norms and improved guidance and training about citations. (shrink)

Pseudoskepticism, which typically is portraying someone’s work as despicable with scientifically unsound polemics, is a modern day threat to the traditional standard of discussion in science and popular science. This opinion article gives seven tell-tale signs by which pseudoskepticism can be recognized.

Academic incivility has contributed to (a) disruptions in learning, (b) poor mental health, (c) diminished academic achievement, and (d) increased financial costs. Understanding and characterizing human roles in academic incivility is foundational to developing plans and policies to mitigate the damaging effects of academic incivility. The purpose of this exploratory study is to characterize the roles of those involved in academic incivility in higher education. In this quantitative study of (N = 459) of higher education learners from 44 of 50 (...) states in the United States, a survey was deployed to investigate the role of self-esteem and advocacy beliefs in relationship to academic incivility roles (i.e., victim, perpetrator, bystander, and upstander). Statistical analysis included regression and correlations. Findings include that upstanders have higher self-esteem and perceptions of options to self-advocate than bystanders, victims, perpetrators, and victim/perpetrator. Likewise, respondents identified being involved in a plurality of incivility roles. Other findings included bystanders preferred faculty intervention in academic incivility incidences over self-advocacy. Those who endorsed being an incivility victim or victim/perpetrator were predictive of acknowledging having low self-esteem. (shrink)

In higher education in the United States, the language of honor is prevalent in academic settings. For the purposes of creating a fair educational environment and aiding in students’ personal character development, many universities and colleges implement honor systems that require students to adhere to honor codes. Most of these honor systems penalize forms of academic dishonesty, with some extending to include inappropriate social behaviors such as discrimination and harassment. We argue that the focus of academic honor systems on sanctioning (...) honor violations overemphasizes the extrinsic motivation for compliance and detracts from the intended goal to nurture personal character development and the intrinsic motivation to act honorably. Despite this divergence from their intended goal, academic honor systems should be preserved because, if modified to align with the psychological principles underlying intrinsic motivation and the internalization of and adherence to moral norms, they can serve the significant goal, especially in an educational setting, of shaping individuals and a society that value honor and integrity. (shrink)

For decades, student ratings of university faculty have been used by administrators in high stakes faculty employment decisions such as tenure, promotion, contract renewal and reappointment, and merit pay. However, virtually no attention has been paid to the ethical questions of using ratings in employment decisions. Instead, the ratings literature is generally limited to psychometric issues such as whether a given student ratings instrument exhibits the statistical properties of reliability and validity. There is no consensus understanding of teaching effectiveness, the (...) very attribute that students are alleged to “evaluate.” What students are actually doing when they complete a ratings form—whether measuring, evaluating, reporting, judging, opining, etc.—remains unsettled in the ratings literature. If ratings are surveys of student satisfaction, they have no logical or ethical connection with teaching expertise. I argue that the administrative use of student ratings in faculty employment decisions violates basic moral principles including nonmaleficence, beneficence, professional autonomy and clinical independence, and multiple aspects of justice including due care, truthfulness, and equitable treatment. These ethical violations rule against any administrative use of student ratings in faculty employment decisions, including the “use with caution in conjunction with other evaluative methods” deployment of student ratings. My conclusion is that such use should be immediately and universally terminated. Formative use of student questionnaires as part of ordinary instructional communication and feedback between instructor and students is a separate issue and outside of the scope of this paper. (shrink)

Philosophy’s place, at the intersection of the scientific and humanities disciplines, makes it an interesting test case for the role of English and other languages and cultures in our contemporary knowledge economy. The humanities’ attention to the richness of the world’s languages and cultures is in tension with the science’s essentially cosmopolitan project. This tension is perhaps especially evident in ‘analytic’ or ‘Anglo-American’ philosophy. Despite complementarity in earlier stages of the discipline, the humanities and scientific tendencies are now clashing with (...) undesirable results. This is in an important part due to analytic philosophy’s underexamined focus on a single vehicular language. One symptom of this malaise is that the voices of non-native-speaking philosophers are significantly less heard than those of native speakers. Especially problematic is, I argue, the current emphasis given to aesthetic considerations, and in particular linguistic form or style, as a sign of scientific rigour in the analysis of philosophical problems. I discuss this emphasis critically, arguing that it is not justifiable, in part because it deprives contemporary analytic philosophy of a wider variety of philosophical perspectives arising from different languages and cultures. I conclude by briefly presenting a recent attempt to make contemporary philosophy more linguistically inclusive. (shrink)

There are very few (published) accounts of editorial misconduct, and those that do exist are almost exclusively focused on medicine-related areas. In the present article we detail a case of editorial misconduct in a rather underexplored domain, the social sciences. This case demonstrates that although legal systems provide different instruments of protection to avoid, compensate for, and punish misconduct on the part of journal editors, the social and economic power unbalance between authors and publishers suggests the importance of alternative solutions (...) before or instead of bringing a lawsuit to court. It puts forward strong arguments in favour of the need for effective regulatory bodies so as to achieve and maintain a culture of research integrity by all involved in the process. (shrink)

In all research, ethical considerations are crucial to reliability and quality and researchers are guided by various national and international documents and ethical committees. Despite different strategies to guide researchers and to ensure quality, there still seems to be uncertainty in educational science about how research ethics should be positioned and handled in practice. The aim of this study is to phenomenologically explore what meanings the phenomenon research ethics are given in Swedish doctoral dissertations in educational research based on how (...) doctoral researchers position, frame and present research ethics in their ethical elaborations. The empirical data consists of 60 doctoral dissertations in educational science at Swedish universities from the past year. The result indicates very different meanings of ethical considerations despite a quite common point of departure in the Swedish Research Council’s guidelines and knowledge of the Ethics Review Act. Some variations can be related to the differences in the studies’ designs, but regardless of such explanations, the conclusion is that consensus regarding ethical considerations in research is largely lacking. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to explore an integrative approach to academic ethics research. Academic ethics is known as professional commitment towards ethical decision-making in education, research, and innovation. It has been practised in multiple forms, including academic integrity and research ethics within a larger educational and research landscape. Despite having several intertwining and overlapping features and principles of practice, higher education institutions all over the world have considered academic integrity and research ethics as two distinct subjects of practice. (...) Although the developmental history, guiding values, and principle-based practices of both academic integrity and research ethics have led us to separate theoretical and methodological understandings, the concurrently emerging threats towards ethical integrity in education, research, and innovation require an integrative approach to academic ethics. In this conceptual paper, I propose an integrative approach to academic ethics research based on the theoretical concepts/constructs and methodological practices of both academic integrity and research ethics in higher education. The integrative approach frames an Integrity Resolution, a positionality framework for academic ethics researchers. It aims to assist researchers and research practitioners of academic ethics to be aware of their own positioning while investigating ethical decision-making practices and misconduct in education and research. (shrink)

The current literature review is part of a project-based study exploring the perceptions of university students, scholars, and policymakers in Bulgaria on the issue of academic plagiarism. The paper focuses on plagiarism prevention. The review explores the issue of plagiarism in light of the psychological motivations behind the conscious act of the misconduct, outlining possible directions for minimizing the misconduct in academia in the areas of psychology, law and education separately and in combination. The current literature review considers the misconduct (...) of plagiarism as a universal phenomenon closely linked to the heuristics of human nature. The paper delves into the heuristics of human nature motivating the misconduct from personal, cultural, legal, and educational psychology perspectives, drawing general (universal) and specific (for the Bulgarian context) implications regarding culture and educational and legal policy. Creating, regulating and preserving an empathic, trauma-healing and value-oriented organisational environment in academia emerges as a positive point of convergence and synergy where psychology meets education, culture and the law. (shrink)

This research study explores academic integrity practices in higher education institutions in Türkiye during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a primary focus on online education. The study involves English language instructors and lecturers as participants. Data were collected through a survey comprising 24 semi-structured and open-ended questions, aiming to understand participants’ perceptions of academic misconduct, associated sanctions, and actions promoting academic integrity. Demographic information about the 29 participants from different universities in Türkiye was also gathered, with 65.5% being female and 34.5% (...) male, and an average teaching experience of 9.5 years. The findings reveal significant insights into academic integrity practices, including common types of misconduct, challenges in evaluating language skills online, and an increase in cheating tendencies. Based on the results, the study recommends the implementation of institutional-level initiatives to promote academic integrity in online education, emphasizing the importance of effective policies to uphold a fair and honest learning environment. (shrink)

This paper introduces the concept of ‘hyper-ambition’ in academia as a contributing factor to what has been termed a ‘replication crisis’ across some sciences. The replication crisis is an umbrella term that covers a range of ‘questionable research practices’, from sloppy reporting to fraud. There are already many proposals to address questionable research practices, some of which focus on the values, norms, and motivations of researchers and institutes, and suggest measures to promote research integrity. Yet it is not easy to (...) promote integrity in hyper-competitive academic environments that value high levels of ambition. I argue that in such contexts, it is as likely that a kind of hyper-ambition is fostered that (inadvertently or otherwise) prioritises individual success above all, including to the detriment of scientific quality. In addition, efforts to promote values like integrity falter because they rely on sufficient uniformity in motivations or tendencies. Codes and guidance promoting integrity are, however, likely to influence those for whom such values are not optional, while others simply find ways around them. To demonstrate this I offer a thought experiment in which we consider the imaginary working situations of two ordinary academics. I conclude that tackling questionable research practices in the light of the replication crisis requires robust ‘top down’ measures that expect and accommodate a broader range of academic values, motivations, and tendencies, while challenging those that help to promote hyper-ambition. (shrink)

Several studies on research misconduct have already explored and discussed its potential occurrence in universities across different countries. However, little is known about this issue in Spain, a paradigmatic context due to its consolidated scientific evaluation system, which relies heavily on metrics. The present article attempts to fill this gap in the literature through an empirical study undertaken in a specific university: Universitat Jaume I (Castelló). The study was based on a survey with closed and open questions; almost half the (...) total population of the university’s researchers participated (505 out of 1030, i.e. 49.03%), yielding a representative sample of different academic career stages and areas of knowledge. Results show that 71.68% (n = 362) of the respondents consider at least one form of misconduct to be proliferating in their area of knowledge at the national level. This figure falls to 48.95% (n = 247) in reference to misconduct in their own institution. The most frequently reported types of misconduct linked to life with colleagues are especially the use of personal influence (in evaluation or review processes); lax supervision of doctoral theses; and the abuse of power over people in lower positions. Personal ambitions and pressure from the evaluation system are regarded as the most influential causes of misconduct proliferation, according to academics at this Spanish university. (shrink)

Research Ethics Boards (REBs) provide oversight for Canadians that research projects will comply with standards of ethics if the studies are carried out as described in the documents that have been approved. While REBs have traditionally been affiliated with institutions such as universities and hospitals, a number of factors - including the increased volume of research being conducted outside academic centres - have resulted in the establishment of some private or independent REBs. This, in turn, has raised concerns about the (...) credibility of REBs in the private sector and their capacity to handle issues around conflict of interest. This Breakout Session was an opportunity to hear the perspectives of people associated with institutional and private REBs and examine perceived problems with boards in the private sector, scrutinize theoretical and structural differences between types of REBs, and look at whether or not there is room for both institutional and private boards in the Canadian research review landscape. (shrink)

Rival causal and interpretive approaches to explaining social phenomena have important ethical differences. While human actions can be explained as a result of causal mechanisms, as a meaningful choice based on reasons, or as some combination of the two, it is morally important that social scientists respect others by recognizing them as persons. Interpretive explanations directly respect their subjects in this way, while purely causal explanations do not. Yet although causal explanations are not themselves expressions of respect, they can be (...) used in respectful ways if they are incorporated into subjects’ self-directed projects. This can occur when subjects correctly understand and freely adopt researchers’ goals through a process of informed consent. It can also occur when researchers correctly understand and adopt their subject’s goals, using their research to empower those they study. (shrink)

Since becoming independent from the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s, the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have established strategic priorities focused on the globalization and internationalization of higher education. These have emphasized the modernization of university systems with a focus on research to produce impactful knowledge and enhance global standing in knowledge production. Yet, the espoused strategic priorities have not been supported by policy development associated with research ethics. This article addresses the need for research ethics (...) policy to facilitate internationalized knowledge production and dissemination. Developing research ethics policy is not without its difficulties. In many developing research contexts, commentators have criticized policy internationalisation which involves the direct transfer of research ethics policy from the Global North rather than engaging with and adapting policy to other cultural contexts. In the light of recent scholarly debates over policy borrowing and translation, this mixed methods study considers how and in what ways higher education research ethics policy can or should develop within Central Asia. (shrink)

International research collaborations engage multiple countries, researchers, and universities. This enhances the magnitude of contextual challenges, including legal and ethical dimensions across various jurisdictions, that must be bridged in qualitative research regardless of discipline, also in the construction of informed consents. From a Scandinavian perspective, this discussion paper explores challenges pertaining to the construction of informed consents related to EU data protection legislation, to which research institutions are subject when processing data related to EU residents. Next, it discusses challenges related (...) to different traditions in terms of handling informed consent and research participants’ integrity, including the possibilities to waive anonymity in research. In international, multidisciplinary studies where researchers also operate in relatively ‘unknown territory’, it is especially important to be aware of and reflect on (inter)national possibilities and limitations related to laws, ethics, and culture/traditions in societies and within the academic fields. The variations in laws, ethical guidelines, and traditions in different countries demand that researchers are up to date with laws and ethical guidelines in the studied countries. Their practical implementation in the countries at stake in international, collaborative research endeavours are important, especially since such regulations and guidelines are far from static and change over time. The implementation of good ethical research practice requires democratic, reflexive, and responsive processes in all phases of research. Especially the preparation phase functions as a period to increase and ensure the knowledge and legal/ethical competences of the entire research team to meet the demands in the countries at stake. (shrink)

This paper examines the perspectives of university teachers in Bangladesh regarding predatory journals, assesses their knowledge of the characteristics of such journals, investigates the factors that might influence their submission of papers to such journals, and explores their views on how universities can contribute to the identification of predatory journals. A total of 391 university teachers participated in this study. Chi-square tests were conducted to examine the relationship between participants’ demographic characteristics and their perceptions of open access and predatory journals. (...) The findings revealed that several demographic variables were significantly related to university teachers’ perceptions of predatory journals. Among the respondents who reported possessing a good knowledge of predatory journals (_n_ = 181), their understanding levels were assessed by assigning a score of ‘1’ for each correct answer and ‘0’ for each incorrect/unsure answer to 18 characteristics associated with predatory publishing. The scores obtained by this group of participants were transformed into percentiles and were categorized into three different understanding levels: poor, medium and high. The results of independent sample _t_-tests and ANOVA found significant differences in total correctness scores based on gender, designation and teaching experience. The study revealed that only 7% of participants had a high level of understanding of the characteristics, despite claiming to have a good knowledge of predatory journals. The findings of this study highlight the need to design and implement interventions to increase the awareness levels and combat the prevalence of predatory publishing in the academic community. (shrink)

This cross-sectional study investigated the efficacy of an extended theory of planned behavior in predicting academic dishonesty among students of higher education. The participants comprised 328 undergraduates drawn from Nigerian and Malaysian public universities. Existing measures were adapted and validated using Cronbach’s alpha statistics and confirmatory factor analysis approach. The fit statistics of the extended model (χ2/df = 2.08, CFI =.926, and RMSEA =.057) were adequate. Findings revealed that academic dishonesty, especially cheating, was common in the sampled population. The key (...) psychological factors contributing to this problem were positive attitude towards the conducts, lack of strict sanctions against the conducts, and a perceived self-confidence of some students to cheat successfully. Another strong factor was the belief that intellectual material is “public property.” The modified model was not gender-bias, suggesting that the underpinning factors were similar irrespective of the gender-type of the students. Hence, a unified, non-gender discriminating approach will be effective in planned actions towards reversing the trend. (shrink)

Concerns over students engaging in various forms of academic misconduct persist, especially with the post-COVID19 rise in online learning and assessment. Research has demonstrated a clear role of the personality trait psychopathy in cheating, yet little is known about why this relationship exists. Building on the research by Curtis et al. (Personality and Individual Differences, 185, 111277, 2022a), this study tested an extended Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model, including psychopathy as a precursor to attitudes and subjective norms, and measures (...) of anticipated moral emotions (shame and guilt), to predict cheating intentions and cheating behaviours. A cross-sectional survey was administered online to university students from around the globe (n = 257). Results from a serial mediation analysis revealed that psychopathy predicted academic misconduct behaviours indirectly through attitudes, subjective norms, anticipated guilt (but not anticipated shame), and intentions. These findings indicate that cheating may be reduced by modifying attitudes to cheating, subjective norms regarding cheating, and anticipated feelings of guilt related to engaging in academic misconduct. In addition, the results revealed high rates of several forms of cheating, particularly in unsupervised online tests, which have been used more widely since the COVID-19 pandemic. This finding raises concerns regarding the poor security of such assessments. (shrink)

Breaches of research integrity have gained considerable attention due to high-profile scandals involving questionable research practices by reputable scientists. These practices include plagiarism, manipulation of authorship, biased presentation of findings and misleading reports of significance. To combat such practices, policymakers tend to rely on top-down measures, mandatory ethics training and stricter regulation, despite limited evidence of their effectiveness. In this study, we investigate the occurrence and underlying factors of questionable research practices (QRPs) through an original survey of 3,005 social and (...) medical researchers at Swedish universities. By comparing the role of the organizational culture, researchers´ norms and counter norms, and individual motivation, the study reveals that the counter norm of Biasedness—the opposite of universalism and skepticism—is the overall most important factor. Thus, Biasedness was related to 40–60% of the prevalence of the questionable practices. The analysis also reveals the contradictory impact of other elements in the organizational environment. Internal competition was positively associated with QRP prevalence, while group-level ethics discussions consistently displayed a negative association with such practices. Furthermore, in the present study items covering ethics training and policies have only a marginal impact on the prevalence of these practices. The organizational climate and normative environment have a far greater influence. Based on these findings, it is suggested that academic leaders should prioritize the creation and maintenance of an open and unbiased research environment, foster a collaborative and collegial climate, and promote bottom-up ethics discussions within and between research groups. (shrink)

The purpose of this research is to gain a complete understanding of how students and faculty in higher education perceive the role of AI tools, their impact on academic integrity, and their potential benefits and threats in the educational milieu, while taking into account ways to help curb its disadvantages. Drawing upon a qualitative approach, this study conducted in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of faculty members and students in higher education, in universities across Lebanon. These interviews were analyzed and (...) coded using NVivo software, allowing for the identification of recurring themes and the extraction of rich qualitative data. The findings of this study illuminated a spectrum of perceptions. While ChatGPT and AI tools are recognized for their potential in enhancing productivity, promoting interactive learning experiences, and providing tailored support, they also raise significant concerns regarding academic integrity. This research underscores the need for higher education institutions to carefully navigate the integration of AI tools like ChatGPT. It calls for the formulation of clear policies and guidelines for their ethical and responsible use, along with comprehensive support and training. This study contributes to the existing literature by presenting a comprehensive exploration of the perceptions of both students and faculty regarding AI tools in higher education, through a qualitative rich approach. By delving into the intricate dynamics of ChatGPT and academic integrity, this study offers fresh insights into the evolving educational landscape and the ongoing dialogue between technology and ethics. (shrink)

Most, if not all, journals require the use of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, to be acknowledged. This article argues that current guidelines do not go far enough as the use of an LLM may be acknowledged but the reviewers, and future readers, do not know which parts of the article were generated with AI (Artificial Intelligence) assistance and how that text was subsequently edited. It’s possible that an entire article could be generated with AI and, as long, (...) as the authors acknowledge that an LLM was used then they are meeting the journal’s guidelines. In this opinion article current publisher guidelines are examined, followed by a brief case study which highlights some of the issues that the scholarly community faces. Proposed changes to the guidelines are presented which say that LLM prompts, and the generated text, should be provided to the reviewers, and to future readers, so that they can see which parts of the article were generated and what edits were made to that text. (shrink)

With the growing attention to ethics in the field of archaeology, there is not a single volume focused specifically on the archaeology of ancient western Asia and the Mediterranean region. This book represents the beginning of a conversation in filling this gap.

Inappropriate behaviors in peer review may involve bullying and can have negative effects on authors and the dissemination of knowledge. In this paper, we have discussed the causes, forms, harms, and potential mitigation measures of bullying in peer review. We call for attention to these behaviors and advocate for future research within a reasonable framework.