Introduction
1.1 What is scientific ethics?
Science by its very nature is at the forefront of innovation and discovery. Although many of us fail to appreciate its daily impact on our lives, scientific advancements have impacted human civilization since the time of the Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians (Elanzeery, 2016; Mark, 2019). Modern science in the 21st century looks quite different, with the establishment of practices such as peer review and reproducibility requirements. Well-known scientific innovations range from discovery of electricity (Baldwin, 2020) to eradication of various diseases (Hopkins, 2013) and even exploration of outer space (Timko et al., 2022). While you can readily think of positive outcomes from each of these examples, it takes more effort to consider the associated ethical considerations for each. Indeed, science is not always benevolent. There are many examples of experiments conducted in the name of science that resulted in significant harm, often to equity-denied communities (Eggertson 2010; Scharff et al., 2010; Sivasubramaniam et al., 2021).
Ultimately, the difference between good and bad science is ethics, which underlies all scientific inquiry. Scientific ethics creates a logical framework from which one can determine which action is the most appropriate in a given situation. As scientists, we must apply these frameworks to evaluate the design, execution, interpretation, communication, and applications of our science. This critical engagement requires continuous self-evaluation of conduct and motives of ourselves and our peers that is integral in the prevention of potentially harmful behaviour (Porter et al., 2022). Ethics establish the standards and norms to which we hold scientists accountable, but they are more than simple rules that scientists are obligated to follow. As science continues to push the boundaries of our understanding about the world around us, it is important to uphold ethical norms such as objectivity, carefulness, accountability, transparency and responsible publishing (Resnik, 2020b). It is the responsibility of scientists to understand the rationale behind these norms and apply these concepts as they develop new tools and methods, uncover new discoveries and share novel information with their peers and the public.
Some ethical considerations are obvious to those engaged in science. But what happens when diverging perspectives or motivations cause individuals to view ethical issues through different ethical lenses? Rules and norms prohibiting the falsification or fabrication of data may seem intuitive despite their persistence in the scientific literature. Beyond a general sense that faking data creates bad science, most of the ethical lenses we could apply in these instances would quickly allow us to discount these actions as incorrect. However, other ethical considerations may not be as straight forward. For example, there may be both ethical and unethical examples of exclusion of results of experiments (consider what these may be). Other practical ethical considerations may be overlooked, such as failing to account for the impact of sourcing and disposing of materials used in an experiment. While the source and disposal choice are not purposefully unethical, it is still an unethical action that could have consequences, not only for the researcher, but for the public and the environment. Nevertheless, from intuitive to effortful, scientific ethics helps guide how we act, promoting responsible, accurate, reliable and objective science (Porter et al., 2022). In practice, scientific ethics covers a wide range of topics including experimental design and replication, data management and biases. It is important that scientists embed these considerations as they conduct their scientific practice. Yet, in their practical scientific training, interrogation of these important considerations too easily gets pushed aside.
In practice, applying different perspectives or theories, known as lenses, allows scientists to undertake this ethical decision-making process. These are explored in depth within the Applied Ethics Primer (Meynell 2023), but broadly focus on: consequences (who will be impacted and how), action and duties (motivations and necessity of actions), character and virtues (characteristics of good people and lives), and relations (consideration of relationships). Ethics is not a matter of individual feelings, religion, law, norms, or science itself. Thus, we cannot rely solely on structures, laws, or rules to guide our actions. It is vital that we learn to think critically and collaboratively about actions and practices and apply these lenses to do good science.
1.2 Why are scientific ethics important?
Promoting critical thinking about ethics in science is important for many reasons. For the purposes of this OER, we will address 5 of them.
- Ethical decision-making helps maintain the basic aims of research; namely the pursuit of knowledge for the good of society while supporting accurate, error free research (Resnik, 2020b).
- Science has become increasingly collaborative as individuals from different fields, labs and sometimes countries come together to investigate progressively more complex questions. Collaboration has made researching complicated topics possible, but differences in norms, language, laws, culture and motivation can be significant barriers to successful partnerships. The creation of ethical standards of behaviour helps to establish baseline expectations of scientific conduct for various topics, including authorship practices, respect and conflict resolution, which in turn promote effective collaboration (Resnik, 2020b).
- By using ethical norms to establish baseline expectations for acceptable behaviour, the scientific community can determine appropriate punitive measures to address instances of unethical behaviour (Resnik, 2020b).
- The use of ethical norms enables scientists to have checks and balances. This in turn allows other scientists, researchers and indeed the public, to trust that the information being presented is accurate, valid and conducted appropriately. This has real world impacts as was seen during the COVID-19 pandemic when anti-vaccine rhetoric and vaccine hesitancy became a barrier to public health. Although there has always been hesitancy related to vaccines, much of the mistrust seen today can be traced back to one unethical study linking vaccines and autism (Burrage, 2015; Eggertson, 2010). For decades, if not longer, public trust in science has been eroded and it is understandable when time and again the public is presented with examples of unethical science (Koziol, 2016; Resnik, 2020a; Sivasubramaniam et al., 2021). Some communities have absolutely no reason to trust scientists given their historical relationship with science (Macdonald et al., 2014; Scharff et al. 2010). Unethical science has slipped through the established checks and balances for many reasons including active deception by those responsible and the inability of regulatory bodies to examine every experiment due to the volume of scientific work occurring at any one time.
- One of the most important reasons to maintain vigorous ethical norms is that they help ensure that all who are involved in scientific inquiry are safe. This does not just apply to the researcher in the lab but to their colleagues, friends, family and community. Everyone involved, up to and including the person who cleans the lab after an experiment, needs to be considered. Repeatedly, we have seen that when ethics are not considered, safety is compromised (Ratner, 2017; Resnik, 2020a).
Consider…
- How many times have you engaged with media depicting science or scientists in a negative light? Reflect on terms that are sometimes associated with science, such as “mad scientist” or “monster”.
- How might these terms continue to impact the public perception of science?
1.3 What is the purpose of this OER?
This OER is designed to assist in the exploration of ethical considerations in a practical manner. The motivation is to encourage students to consider the ethical ramifications of their actions throughout their scientific process. Scientific ethics is much more than ‘a box to be checked off’ and forgotten about. Decision making is something that scientists do all the time, whether they recognize the ethical ramifications of their decisions or not. As it stands, science tends to react to unethical behaviour as it occurs, often leaving little time to explore multiple perspectives and lenses. This OER is meant to proactively engage students in exploring the purpose of scientific ethics and habituate them to consciously consider the ethical impacts of their actions. Students deserve to understand that ethical science is more thorough well-rounded science, so they can engage meaningfully in the scientific community. Through these considerations, students can explore the rationale behind a complex topic and thus will be more well-rounded, critically minded scientists themselves.
Utilizing an inclusive ethically minded lens, students will learn about some of the ethical decisions they may face as scientists. Using case studies, students will be provided with the opportunity to practice evaluating and acting upon ethical decisions. We chose to phrase the case studies from a first-person point of view to put the students in scenarios where they are receiving realistic training as scientists. By using case studies as examples, students will be exposed to different ethical dilemmas, thereby allowing them to recognize and consider similar issues in their own scientific practice. Educators who opt to use this OER to supplement their course materials can use whole case studies and their accompanying questions, can adapt studies to their own labs, or they can use only the questions. Each option will help prompt students to critical consideration of various practical ethical concerns.
