Technology, Research Ethics
Seminar 1
Group 3: Ping Sui;Marc Girons Lopez; Erika Jansson ; Jie Yang; Zeeshan Khaliq
Animal
model
Ping
Analytical
Chemistry
Environment
pollution
Erika
Environmental
Toxicology
Jie
Organic
Chemitry
Collaboration
Zeeshan
Bioinformatics
Publishing Research Result
Marc
Hydrology
Transmission of new knowledge to the wider society
Novelty vs replicability
• “Learning something new advances that goal
[of science]; reaffirming something known
does not”.
• “replication studies were not included as
examples of research encouraged for
submission in the editorial policy”
– Replication studies were deemed “not
newsworthy” and a “waste of space”
Marc Girons Lopez, Hydrology
Novelty vs replicability
• But…
– Many published results have uncertain truth value
– Publishing a result does not make it true!
• Replication is a means of increasing the
confidence in the truth value of a claim
• Without replication studies, when false results
get published they are difficult to expel
Marc Girons Lopez, Hydrology
Authors’ responsibility
• Who should be listed as an author and who
should not be?
• An person providing you expertize/analyses
that strenghen the results in the paper but is
in other aspects not involved?
• Master-students?
Erika Jansson,
Environmental Toxicology
Authors’ responsibility
• Who are responsible for the content of the
paper?
• Are everyone equally responsible?
• Should all authors of a paper be able to
defend the work?
Erika Jansson,
Environmental Toxicology
Electronic publishing
1.original publication in online journal
2.supplementary publication
Jie Yang, Organic Chemitry
Open access to publication
• Advantages:
• 1. quickly present results and easily accessible
• 2. available to ‘poor’ researchers
• Disadvantages:
• cost of electronic publishing
Jie Yang, Organic Chemitry
Publication as a measure of worth
• There is usually a temptation to break down
research in smaller parts
• The goal is to publish each part separately in
order to get more publications
• Is it a good research practice?
– Not unless you have concrete reasons to do so
– Because it make the whole research difficult to
understand
Zeeshan Khaliq, Bioinformatics
Publication as a measure of worth
• What’s a good research practice?
• A good practice is to try to publish the results
as a whole.
• Otherwise, you must have clear reasons for it
and must give cross references
• The quality of the research should be
evaluated rather than the quantity
• It can be achieved by counting citations rather
than number of publications
Zeeshan Khaliq, Bioinformatics
Summary
• Publication should transmit new knowledge to
the wider society
• Novelty and positive results are vital for publish
ability, not for truth.
• The practices varies regarding the inclusive
criteria and the order of authorship on the paper.
• A large number of publications does not make a
researcher better than another in terms of
research.
• The quality of research does.