A major branch of philosophy, encompasses right conduct and good living. Ethics: the standards that govern the conduct of a person, especially a member of a profession.
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61 views
Should an Editor in Chief publish in their own journal?
An Editor in Chief of a journal ought to be proud of their journal and consider it a good place to publish their own work, so not publishing in the journal that they edit suggests a lack of confidence ...
9
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3answers
239 views
Is it ethical for an author to cite their own work with themselves as first author when they are not first author?
I was reading through a journal article by an author. Let's call him Author X. The author while referring to some of his own journal articles cite them as Author X et al., even though Author X is not ...
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4answers
436 views
Can I ask for payment if my employer wants to use my dissertation?
I completed my PhD research as an industry based researcher. My employer was fully aware of my research. There was no support given by the employer other than encouragement. However, I used the ...
11
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3answers
327 views
Is it ethical for departments to have publication requirements for students
This question and this question suggest that it is not uncommon/unheard of for departments to require publication by students (generally masters and doctoral) either to get credit for a course or ...
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2answers
204 views
Favoring citations in the same journal
I have once, some time ago, received a rejection notice in which the journal editor made what I thought was a peculiar comment. The reviewers all found that the work was good, but one emitted a doubt ...
23
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3answers
536 views
Rediscovery of calculus in 1994: what should have happened to that paper?
There's a well-known paper in academic circles that features a rediscovery of the trapezoidal rule for numerical integration by a medical researcher:
“A Mathematical Model for the Determination of ...
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1answer
173 views
Is it ethical for a part-time professor to use his position for other interests?
There is a professor who works part-time at a university as a moderator of one of their student groups. He does not teach any actual classes but spends a hugely considerable amount of time with the ...
5
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2answers
243 views
Do I have a MSc degree if I did the work but did not pay tuition?
I have a BSc degree from a private university in Egypt. The university offered me a scholarship at the beginning of the program but that scholarship applied only partially to a subsequent MSc degree.
...
5
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5answers
652 views
Changing my handwriting for the PhD qualifying exam [closed]
I am a guy with very distinct handwriting, and let's just say I have noticed some interesting grading trends in one of my classes. I'll add that my advisor and the professor of this class also have ...
12
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3answers
239 views
How to use competitions to encourage students to work harder and study more
In order to encourage and motivate students to work harder and study more, it seems the teacher can use various competitions in class or after class. But on the other hand, competitions could cause ...
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1answer
99 views
Legal or duplicate to publish results in both dissertation and journal [duplicate]
Suppose one has published his results in a journal, then uses them in his dissertation, is it legal or duplicate?
Conversely, if one tend to publish some important results in his dissertation to a ...
10
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5answers
380 views
Why don't all disciplines follow a double-blind review system?
I'm new to the journal publishing world, and I can't but help wonder why the review process isn't completely blind? By blind, I mean the reviewers don't know who performed the research or (more ...
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2answers
400 views
Drawing Lines when Giving Ideas to Undergraduate Students
I teach quite a few 'unprepared' students and I find they struggle with finding source material on which to base their reports. Basically, they need to read a lot and apply theories to different ...
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2answers
305 views
Has anyone ever written a paper and put your name on it?
I am a professor and researcher in mathematics and my research is kind of on the theoretical side. Online, I discovered a mathematician who had written some papers with ideas similar to mine, and we ...
12
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5answers
1k views
Worry about stealing of research ideas
I have gotten an idea in the field of Computer Science that it can result in a research paper. The problem is that I lack the adequate background in one part needed for this research, mostly ...
4
votes
1answer
94 views
How can my colleague use our joint results in his PhD thesis?
Over the past two years, I've been collaborating with a PhD student. He did experimental work, and I did modeling and data analysis based on his experiments. Now that my colleague is about to write up ...
12
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2answers
315 views
Informing my supervisor of discrepancy in the results
I am working on my MPhys thesis, on a certain dataset. Part of this dataset has been analyzed by my current supervisor during his PhD, with published results. He asked me to expand on that work by ...
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6answers
1k views
Asked again to review a paper, when the authors don't wish to modify it
I have received a manuscript to review for a journal. The interesting thing is, I had already reviewed this article (exact same title, abstract and author list, almost exact same content) for another ...
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2answers
269 views
What should I do if I find two suspiciously similar published articles?
In my research, I've found two articles that are completely identical, except the abstract and authors names. They are published on different conferences, with one year between.
What should (must) I ...
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3answers
311 views
Ethical Disclosure of Professional Knowledge in PhD Dissertation
I have just completed my PhD. Although my examiners did not raise any concerns, I have been grappling with an ethical issue for the entire duration of my candidature.
The issue concerns professional ...
32
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2answers
811 views
What to do with passed PhD that extensively presents quotes as paraphrase?
While writing the literature review chapter of my doctoral dissertation I picked up a few recent dissertations on similar topics from the library to get some pointers on references and style. As I was ...
12
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4answers
348 views
Are overlapping dissertations ethically acceptable?
Would it be ethical for students working on the same team to include in their Ph.D. theses results arising from joint publications, ending up in different dissertations containing almost identical ...
17
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1answer
213 views
Finish previous work during current position
I will soon change of lab, moving from a PhD student position to post-doc position. During the last months of my contract as a PhD student, I tried to finish everything I started but I still have a ...
13
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1answer
232 views
Appropriate to thank examiners?
I have just completed a research degree. By the rules of my university, my dissertation was examined by two outside examiners, whose identities were kept secret from me during the examination process. ...
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2answers
189 views
Publishing the same results at multiple conferences
I presented my psychology thesis at an undergraduate conference, an international conference in France, and am now interested in submitting it to be presented at the 2013 APA conference in Hawaii. ...
15
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3answers
492 views
Are the Hardy-Littlewood “rules” unethical?
For the second time recently, someone mentioned to me the Hardy-Littlewood rules for collaboration (and on that very site). From what I read about it, they include the following rule:
And, ...
19
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3answers
206 views
What is the principal investigator’s responsibility regarding data authenticity?
Every now and then, you hear stories of data being fabricated by a graduate student (or post-doc) who felt the pressure to publish groundbreaking results was too much. This unethical behavior makes me ...
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1answer
85 views
Is it ever alright to add a subtitle to a title shortened by publication when citing?
Let's assume that a paper was submitted under the "Extremely long and necessary title that explains you are studying pieces of Class A, Class B and Class C of this Bigger (and much more frequently ...
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1answer
171 views
Would it be ethical to hire a proofreader for theses and academic articles?
Proofreading documents for orthography is a pain. I consider that I am decent at writing in my native language (on the grammar and orthography side), but proofreading for typos and whatnots is a ...
9
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4answers
169 views
Is it ethical to request additional money for non-research related work in a research lab as a grad student?
I work in a computational research lab as a graduate research assistant. We're all funded under various grants to do research in our field and we are also working on a thesis, which may or may not be ...
16
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2answers
420 views
Isn't ghostwriting reverse-plagiarism?
Ghostwriting is when an author writes a work and attributes it to someone else.
Isn't this reverse-plagiarism (someone taking credit for someone else's work, but with permission)? I'm not sure it ...
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3answers
636 views
Will self-citation be viewed as self-promotion in academia?
As we know, citation counts are important to judge one's research activity. Is it good to cite one's previous works? Will it be viewed as an act of advertisement or self-promotion?
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4answers
670 views
Are relationships allowed between students and faculty?
What sorts of restrictions do universities place on romantic or sexual relationships between faculty and graduate students, and what are the underlying issues that motivate these restrictions?
For ...
39
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2answers
859 views
What to do if a referee plagiarises the result after rejecting a paper?
I find myself in an awkward situation. Nearly two years ago I submitted a paper to a reputable mathematics journal. After 15 months it was rejected with the rationale that there had been papers ...
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4answers
508 views
Is it ethical to pay a journal substantially to publish a paper?
A while ago, I spoke with a colleague of mine who advised me to beware of journals that require you to pay to publish your work, as they may be predatory. Today, I spoke with my advisor who informed ...
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5answers
504 views
Are academic book buyers legitimate?
I have recently been receiving number of visits from "academic book buyers" that are looking to buy books that I no longer want. It is never stated outright but they seem to be looking mainly for ...
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2answers
219 views
Ethics of a journal requiring that submissions cite existing articles in the journal
Recently, I became aware by own experiences and friend's stories that some international statistical journals (whose names I prefer to omit) are rejecting papers because they do not include a ...
13
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2answers
256 views
Is reuse of “internal” results considered self-plagiarism if used in a later publication?
This is a little bit different from the case of reusing boilerplate text.
Say one has done a series of experiments (either real or "virtual") to produce a set of results. Because the results are ...
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3answers
319 views
In writing a paper, how far can criticism of previous works go?
What are the appropriate limits when criticizing the previously published work of others that you're citing in a paper? Are there limits with respect to maintaining decorum and decency?
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1answer
176 views
When should an author retract their paper as a result of misinterpreted results?
I'm curious when should an author make a call on retracting their paper vs. sending an errata or a correction. Many say it is when an error is involved that influences the interpretation of the paper.
...
8
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2answers
334 views
Is it legal to publicly reveal a student's performance in PhD comprehensive exams?
Is it legal (for a faculty member) to publicly reveal a student's performance in PhD comprehensive exams? In the US, isn't this in violation of FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of ...
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3answers
427 views
Is it rude to ask for accommodations due to a learning disability?
I have a learning disability where I can only learn through seeing (not seeing and hearing). As a result, I need to have headphones in class to block all sound. Should I just tell the professor this?
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1answer
260 views
How to evaluate an open access journal? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How do you judge the quality of a journal?
How to evaluate the genuineness/authenticity, impact, significance & reputation of an open access journal? The prestigious ...
15
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3answers
235 views
Are reviewers allowed to discuss their review with each other?
Suppose you find out that someone you know well or work with is reviewing the same journal paper you are reviewing (i.e., finding out this information on your own, and not via the journal or editor, ...
10
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1answer
165 views
Being quoted for an incorrect statement
Once I expressed an opinion on a question in a discussion with a person working on the problem. My opinion didn't work in its original form but could be modified a little to make it correct, i.e., ...
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1answer
90 views
Publishing previous results from a previous lab
I just looked over this article from Retraction Watch.
To make a long story short, a student used previous data from their former lab and then published it without the PI's permission or knowledge.
...
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2answers
448 views
Do PhD programs care about the personalities of applicants?
Can a very extroverted person, for example, be more favored than a very quiet person? Or is this not ethical? Can someone who is psychopathic be barred from admission?
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3answers
549 views
Who can see a student's grades?
I have a question.
Can all the professors in a department see a particular student's grades?
Can the chair of a department see a student's grades?
12
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2answers
573 views
How ethical is it to view recommendation letters?
Most graduate applications provide a choice to the applicants for viewing their recommendation letters at a later date. There is a mention of some US mandate alongside.
Is it a better option to ...
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1answer
387 views
Posthumous Publication
One of my advisors suddenly passed away while I was in graduate school. We had some discussions and ideas about future publications, but he passed away before any of the work was completed. When the ...
