Professionalism
Key Concepts:
- Why do we have an ethics program at Dartmouth?
-
“Why are we here?” Students should discuss their concepts of
what an “ethic” is, and what types of ethical issues apply to
science. What need is met by having an ethics course?
Key points to convey: Many players (society, scientists,
investors) have real interests in the process and outcomes of
scientific discovery. Course is meant to start a dialog about
responsible conduct of research, focusing on practical issues
that face graduate students and junior scientists (e.g., how
to pick a mentor, who owns my data?).
-
Is there a universal “scientific ethic”?
Key points to convey: Definitions differ, as do expectations
from field to field. But commonalities exist (“shared
values”), including honesty, objectivity, accuracy, and
efficiency (e.g., from the ORI textbook). Emphasize that there
are gray areas, and that standards of practice differ across
fields and evolve over time.
- Professionalism in Research.
-
What is professionalism? (expert knowledge, recognized
responsibility to society, codes of conduct, licensure or
certification, etc.)
Are academic researchers “professionals”? Discuss ways in
which researchers can be considered as “professionals”.
-
Who regulates the conduct of research?
Self regulation (societies, journal policies) vs governmental
or institutional regulation. Can there be too much regulation?
How do regulations change over time?
Use examples of applicable professional society standards of
conduct. What role does institutional scientific culture play?
- Breaches of professionalism.
-
What do I do? Who do I talk to?
Case study: Career in the Balance (OBaS, page 22).
The Dartmouth Compliance and Ethics Hotline
Dartmouth College Compliance Matrix
Delivery:
- Emphasize that the course is about, and for, them.
They are embarking on a dynamic research career, and many of them
are intrinsically interested in learning about the course topics
(professionalism, mentoring, authorship/peer-review, and data
management).
- Tailor the course for your students. Professional expectations
regarding data collection, authorship, and collaborations differ
from field to field. Your students will be most interested in
their own research discipline. For instance, when discussing
standards of conduct, share with students guidelines published by
professional societies that they are members of, or from journals
that they are likely to publish in.
- Let your students take over. As facilitators, we want
to accomplish two things: we want to start an appropriate
conversation of the relevant material. Second, we want to guide
the discussion so that it touches on all of the relevant concepts
and points of view. These goals can be accomplished by emphasizing
to students that the course is not about "right" vs "wrong", and
that all points of view will be respectfully discussed. As
facilitator, a key resource you have is silence... your students
will carry on the conversation. Your role is to keep that
conversation on track and on time (i.e., covering the relevant
topics in the allotted amount of time).
- Be creative with discussion points and case studies.
While you are free to use any of the prepared cases from the text
books, or from Ethics
CORE, you can also develop your own discussions around
relevant current events applicable to the course content. For
example, Science magazine had
an article
in March about the NIH’s new focus on unprofessional conduct
during peer review of grants. These types of topical articles can
be effective launching points for relevant discussions of the
course material.
Case studies useful for this topic: