Ethics among Physicists in Cross-National Perspective

跨国视角下的物理学家伦理

• 批准号: 1237737
• 负责人: Elaine Howard Ecklund
• 金额: $ 29.97万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-15 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1237737&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Ethics; among; Physicists; Cross; National

This study seeks to find out how physicists in the United States, China, and the United Kingdom approach the ethical issues surrounding research integrity and their relationships with industry. The primary data collection will consist of 225 interviews with a sample of physicists at various stages of their careers who work in research universities or research institutes in the three national contexts. We will ask: How do physicists perceive the meaning of research integrity and misconduct? Under what conditions is one obliged to act when research misconduct has occurred? What are the potential conflicts of interest (if any) of industry's role in research? Is the ideal of a borderless scientific community consistent with the national character of research, and is this relationship relevant to issues of research integrity among physicists? Do physicists perceive the ethics training they receive (if they receive any) as relevant to the ethical issues they face? The study begins to fill the lacunae of data that exists on how scientists understand ethical issues in relation to science, and how such views differ across local and national contexts. Intellectual Merits: The research will specifically explore the relationships among science, ethics, and society in a way that complements recent studies of science in national and international contexts. Existing laboratory studies are foundational to understanding how scientists view ethics, yet few broadly examine scientists? own ethical views. The study is a cross-sectional interview-based study rather than a case study, meaning it will complement existing research while significantly expanding upon it. The research will provide a snapshot of pan-communal attitudes, which can be integrated at the aggregate with the wealth of existing microscale perspectives provided by social science studies of the natural sciences. A large qualitative study like ours will contribute to a better understanding of how physicists perceive and gain clarity on what constitutes research integrity and the appropriate relationship between research and industry. Other work highlights the constantly shifting ways scientists overcome uncertainty. Sociologists once thought scientists deployed well-articulated norms - i.e., a bureaucratic-rational approach - to overcome uncertainties about proper scientific conduct. But closer examination reveals that even at the forefront of modern research fields (and perhaps especially here), we find extensive appeals to charismatic authority to foreclose, or at least bracket, such uncertainties. In the natural sciences especially, where research often involves extensive international collaboration, it is important to understand how varying approaches to research integrity might contribute to the success or failure of collaborations, yet there is scant research on this topic. In addition to remedying this knowledge gap, the results of our research will guide and advance specific changes in ethics education for physicists in different national contexts.Educational and Broader Impact: Study findings will be widely disseminated via lectures based on our results, a website, and publications for both academics (particularly those in the ethics community) and general audiences. This study will also involve extensive mentoring of undergraduate research assistants, and insights from the research findings will be used in courses for graduate-level physics students and science policy students. In particular, the PI and co-PIs will provide undergraduates and graduate students training related to science ethics and the development of science policy, during which students will acquire a better understanding of research methods and social science approaches to studying ethics among scientists. Public policy briefs based on our findings will be created (in both English and Chinese) and used to interact with the scientific community and science policy makers in order to demonstrate how varying approaches to science ethics (especially issues of research integrity) might influence international scientific collaborations.

本研究旨在了解美国、中国和英国的物理学家如何处理围绕研究诚信及其与行业关系的伦理问题。主要数据收集将包括225个采访样本的物理学家在他们的职业生涯的不同阶段谁在研究型大学或研究机构在三个国家的背景下工作。我们会问：物理学家如何看待研究诚信和不端行为的含义？在什么情况下，当研究不端行为发生时，人们有义务采取行动？工业界在研究中的作用有哪些潜在的利益冲突（如果有的话）？一个无国界的科学共同体的理想是否与研究的民族性相一致？这种关系是否与物理学家之间的研究诚信问题有关？物理学家是否认为他们接受的伦理培训（如果他们接受过的话）与他们面临的伦理问题有关？这项研究开始填补科学家如何理解与科学有关的伦理问题的数据空白，以及这些观点在地方和国家背景下的差异。智力优势：该研究将专门探讨科学，伦理和社会之间的关系，以补充最近在国家和国际背景下的科学研究。现有的实验室研究是理解科学家如何看待道德的基础，但很少有广泛的研究科学家？自己的道德观。这项研究是一项基于横截面访谈的研究，而不是一个案例研究，这意味着它将补充现有的研究，同时显着扩大它。这项研究将提供一个快照的泛社区的态度，这可以在总的财富，现有的微观尺度的观点提供的社会科学研究的自然科学相结合。像我们这样的大型定性研究将有助于更好地理解物理学家如何看待和澄清什么是研究完整性以及研究与工业之间的适当关系。其他工作强调了科学家克服不确定性的不断变化的方法。社会学家曾经认为，科学家们部署了明确的规范，即，一种官僚理性的方法--克服正确科学行为的不确定性。但更仔细的研究表明，即使在现代研究领域的最前沿（也许尤其是在这里），我们也发现了对魅力权威的广泛呼吁，以排除或至少包括这些不确定性。特别是在自然科学领域，研究往往涉及广泛的国际合作，了解不同的研究诚信方法如何有助于合作的成功或失败是很重要的，但这方面的研究很少。除了弥补这一知识差距外，我们的研究成果还将指导和推进不同国家背景下物理学家伦理教育的具体变革。教育和更广泛的影响：研究结果将通过基于我们研究结果的讲座、网站和面向学术界（特别是伦理界）和普通受众的出版物广泛传播。这项研究还将涉及对本科生研究助理的广泛指导，研究结果的见解将用于研究生物理学学生和科学政策学生的课程。特别是，PI和co-PI将为本科生和研究生提供与科学伦理和科学政策制定相关的培训，在此期间，学生将更好地了解研究方法和社会科学方法，以研究科学家的伦理。基于我们的研究结果的公共政策简报将被创建（英语和中文），并用于与科学界和科学政策制定者互动，以展示不同的科学伦理方法（特别是研究诚信问题）如何影响国际科学合作。