Technology, Research EthicsSeminar 1 Group 3: Ping Sui;Marc Girons Lopez; Erika Jansson ; Jie Yang; Zeeshan Khaliq

MarcHydrology

ErikaEnvironmental

Toxicology

ZeeshanBioinformatics

Jie Organic Chemitry

PingAnalytical Chemistry

Animal model

Environment pollution

Collaboration

Publishing Research Result

Yes! 1

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

1.original publication in online journal

2.supplementary publication

Jie Yang, Organic Chemitry

Electronic publishing

• Advantages:• 1. quickly present results and easily accessible• 2. available to ‘poor’ researchers

• Disadvantages:• cost of electronic publishing

Open access to publication

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 publicationsZeeshan 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.