Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

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  • Publication
    Ethics in Science & Engineering: Redefining Tools & Resources
    (2010-01-01) Goncalves, Michelle S.; Fountain, Jane E.; Adamick, Jessica; Billings, Marilyn
    This report summarizes the main points of discussion of a national workshop convened to advance knowledge and practice for ethics in science and engineering. Following the enactment of the America COMPETES Act and its provisions to increase attention to ethics and the responsible conduct of research in science and engineering, the National Science Foundation (NSF) supported two beta site projects to advance understanding of the key dimensions required for a national online clearinghouse in ethics for science and engineering. The ESENCe Beta Site project, based at UMass Amherst and one of two such beta sites in the United States, thanks the participants of a national workshop held in October 2009 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Workshop participants were carefully selected and invited based on their expertise in library and information science, in ethics in science and engineering, and in related social sciences. More information about the workshop is available through the project website www.umass.edu/sts/esence.
  • Publication
    Mobile Technologies: Participation and Surveillance
    (2010-04-01) Shilton, Katie
    Mobile phones could become the largest surveillance system on the planet. These ubiquitous devices can sense and record data such as images, sound and location. They can automatically upload this data via wireless connections into systems for aggregation and analysis. But unlike traditional surveillance devices, phone sensors can be controlled by billions of individuals around the world. Are emerging mobile technologies platforms for citizen participation in research and discovery? Or new tools for mass surveillance? Location-based technologies and mobile phone applications like carbon footprint calculator Ecorio and Google’s Latitude are attracting attention and raising new questions for engineers, policy makers, and users. These systems collect and combine data in new ways, and their effects cross political boundaries. Who will build and control processes such as data storage, aggregation, sharing, and retention? What policies are required to control this data, and who sets them? And to what purposes will these systems be deployed? Humanists, social scientists, and technologists all have tools and perspectives to investigate these questions and contribute to a discussion of social issues in mobile sensing. This course brings together students from across campus to use some of those disciplinary tools and explore ethics and social challenges engendered by new technologies. Readings, discussion, design exercises and assignments will provide methods, tools, and contexts for unpacking the social issues embedded in emerging technologies. We will concentrate on the features of mobile technologies and how our worldview – specific cultural lenses, research practices, political orientations, economic pressures, popular narratives and fiction – influences how these features are imagined and built.
  • Publication
    Should Physics Students Take a Course in Ethics? Physicists Respond
    (1996-07-01) Wylo, Bonnie; Thomsen, Marshall
    Should physics students take a course in ethics? A National Science Foundation grant was written by the authors in an attempt (in part) to answer this question. One might first ask, why might physics students take a course in ethics? There are three reasons that might combine to persuade one of the necessity. First, the formal training can be quite practical and useful in the daily life of a physicist, as discussed below. Second, the National Science Teachers Association suggests an ethical component in the training of high school physics teachers (NSTA Standards for Science Teacher Preparation, available at www.nsta.org). Third, there is increasing pressure from the National Science Foundation (NSF document 96-102) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH Guide, V.21, No.43, Nov. 27, 1992). As of this writing, there are few ethics courses available purely for physics students. The authors know of only two -- the one taught by Marshall Thomsen at Eastern Michigan University, and one taught at Evergreen State College in Washington. Other courses are in development, as the idea/necessity is catching on, and many other more focused courses exist (e.g. on specific societal issues). One barrier to the development of such courses that has come to the authors' attention (and to the attention of others considering such a course) is the lack of a suitable textbook. The aforementioned grant was written, in part, to begin development of a textbook by holding an ethics workshop, the proceedings from which would become the basis of a text. In an attempt to gather information from the physics community to target and address relevant issues for such a course, a survey was sent to over 400 members of the American Physical Society's Forum on Physics and Society and other physicists who may have an interest in this area. The sample population was intentionally biased in this way to try to obtain a better response rate. The key questions asked were, What, if any, course should be taught? and What issues should be addressed? Two subgroups of the targeted population -- physicists in academia and physicists in industry and government labs -- were sent two different surveys. Results are discussed below. Unless otherwise noted, all respondents not affiliated with academia are combined under the generic heading of "industry".
  • Publication
    Science, Ethics, and Gender
    (1996-07-01) Auchincloss, Priscilla
  • Publication
    Ethical Issues in Physics: Ethical Harassment
    (1996-07-01) Herzenberg, Caroline L.
    The concept of ethical harassment is identified and discussed. It is proposed that we search for societal mechanisms that may lead to some progress in the curtailment of ethical harassment. It is proposed that the right to act ethically should be regarded as a fundamental human and professional right.
  • Publication
    Ethics, Physics, and Public Policy
    (1996-07-01) Kaarsberg, Tina
    This paper discusses the ethical aspects of physicists', and the physics community's involvement in public policy. The work of individual physicists is often quite distant from any societal impact and thus public policy is not normally considered an important ethical consideration for individual physicists. However, in light of the great societal impact of physics-based technologies, the physics profession, by definition, has a major impact on public policy. In addition, most physicists in the U.S. benefited considerably from public funding in their physics education, and many continue to depend upon federal and state funding. Thus, there is a strong ethical argument for the physics community to support some physicists and institutions that work to improve public policy so that these technological impacts are beneficial. For example, sustainability problems due to unequal resource allocation and unsustainable consumption patterns are both caused by and can be solved with technological innovation. Physics training can be useful for understanding and developing solutions to these problems. However, public policy, not physics, will largely determine whether technology exacerbates or solves these problems in the future. Therefore, this paper presents a framework of four world-views (the general public, bureaucracies, activists and chiefs) that was developed by anthropologists. It then suggests how this framework can be used to guide the broadening of the physics profession's impact on public policy. It is intended to counter the view of many physicists that policy changes they would recommend (such as those that would promote the use of more sustainable technologies) are not "politically feasible." This paper argues that such changes would be more politically feasible if the physics community trained and supported more "translators" to work with the full set players that impact policy in our democratic society.
  • Publication
    Publication Practices in Physics
    (1996-07-01) Thomsen, Marshall
    Publication of research results in scholarly journals plays an important role in the scientific community. These publications provide both a means for dissemination of new results and a means for evaluating the quality of scientific work and the scientists who perform it. This paper will examine motivations for publishing, ethical issues in publication, some relevant ethical codes, and some corrective measures that have been taken to shore up areas of ethical concern. Finally, the impact of new communications technologies on the future of publication will be considered.
  • Publication
    Research vs. Teaching: An Ethical Dilemma for the Academic Physicist
    (1996-07-01) Saperstein, Alvin M.
    The usual discussions of academic ethics and freedom revolve around the issues of what we may teach. Here, I'm concerned with how we teach and examine. Thus this paper is concerned with process rather than substance--perhaps an unusual concern for an academic but currently of interest to me, having recently served a year in the federal bureaucracy where process is dominant over substance. A physician who knew of improved procedures to facilitate the health of a patient but chose to use older, proven less effective, means, purely for his/her own convenience, would clearly be guilty of medical malpractice--unethical behavior. I contend that the same accusation is valid against many university physics faculty engaged in the traditional forms of teaching introductory physics, to the growing bodies of nontraditional students, and showing very little concern for what these students are actually learning. This failure to distinguish between teaching and learning not only has ethical implications; it contributes to the growing public disenchantment with its public universities, the decline in support and resources extended to such academic institutions, and to a swelling chorus of attacks on tenure and other customary and useful faculty prerogatives. Tenure has honorably served as protection for the ethical curmudgeon in academia. Growing unethical behavior of the academics will remove this protection from all--ethical and pragmatic alike.
  • Publication
    Ethical Issues in Physics: Getting Started
    (2010-02-01) Thomsen, Marshall
    Over the years, through discussions with colleagues and observations of debates in various forums, I have identified several concerns some have over the usefulness of ethics education in physics. I have classified some of these concerns as myths in that when they are accepted as fact, they lead us in the wrong direction.
  • Publication
    Ethical Problems and Dilemmas in the Interaction Between Science and Media
    (1996-07-01) Resnik, David
    Science and the media are not strange bedfellows since they both gather information, value accuracy and objectivity, and recognize their enormous social responsibilities. The public often benefits from interactions between science and the media, and these two institutions often complement each other. However, since they have different standards, goals, expertises, competencies, and funding sources, science and the media can sometimes interact in ways that produce unintended, adverse consequences for the public. Sometimes the public may become misinformed, deceived, or confused as a result of the media's coverage of science. This unfortunate effect can lead to poor policy decisions, ill-informed public opinion, and the inability to make appropriate use of scientific information. In order to prevent these adverse consequences, scientists need to pay special attention to their interactions with the media. This essay will discuss these interactions in order to suggest some ways that scientists can prevent ethical problems and solve ethical dilemmas in their dealings with the media.
  • Publication
    Annotated Bibliography of Ethical Issues in Physics: National Security
    (2010-02-01) Thomsen, Marshall
    World War II put physicists in the midst of a number of issues related to national security, raising questions such as, to what extent are physicists responsible for the use of their research?
  • Publication
    Annotated Bibliography of Ethical Issues in Physics: Climate Change
    (2010-02-01) Thomsen, Marshall
    Physicists can play an important role in advancing the public debate on climate change.
  • Publication
    Annotated Bibliography of Ethical Issues in Physics: Physicists as Advisors to Society and Leaders
    (2010-02-01) Thomsen, Marshall
    During the last century, physicists have provided advice to society at large on critical issues. These references explore both the history of this advice and ethical standards that apply to those giving advice.
  • Publication
    Annotated Bibliography of Ethical Issues in Physics: Energy Issues
    (2010-02-01) Thomsen, Marshall
    Many physicists are directly or indirectly involved in issues related to society’s use of energy.
  • Publication
    Annotated Bibliography of Ethical Issues in Physics: RCR Education Strategies
    (2010-02-01) Thomsen, Marshall
    Here is where to look for ideas on how to approach ethics education in a classroom or seminar setting.
  • Publication
    Annotated Bibliography of Ethical Issues in Physics: Under-Represented Groups
    (2010-02-01) Thomsen, Marshall
    The demographics of the physics profession in this country do not mirror the population at large in a number of ways that should cause us concern.
  • Publication
    Annotated Bibliography of Ethical Issues in Physics: Research Misconduct
    (2010-02-01) Thomsen, Marshall
    Sometimes physicists cross the line in blatant, highly publicized ways, but lines are also crossed in much quieter ways.