title: The integrity of science - lost in translation?
abstract: This paper presents some selected issues currently discussed about the integrity of science, and it argues that there exist serious challenges to integrity in the various sciences. Due to the involved conceptual complexities, even core definitions of scientific integrity have been disputed, and core cases of scientific misconduct influenced the public discussion about them. It is claimed that ethics and law may not always go well together in matters of scientific integrity. Explanations of the causes of scientific misconduct vary, and defining good scientific practices is not a straightforward task. Even though the efficacy of ethics courses to improve scientific integrity can be doubted, and universities probably need to come up with more innovative formats to improve ethics in scientific training, ethics talk may be the only practical remedy.
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), University of Bergen, Allegaten 34, PO Box 7805, N - 5020 Bergen, Norway. Electronic address: matthias.kaiser@svt.uib.no.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaiser
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000941:ethics; D004991:Ethics, Institutional; D004995:Ethics, Professional; D032984:Ethics, Research; D006801:Humans; D015871:Scientific Misconduct / Q000941:ethics*; D012941:Social Responsibility
keywords: Ethical guidelines; Ethics of science; Scientific integrity; Scientific misconduct