of Ethics Online Collection:None
Statement on Integrity in Science
(Adopted by Council - 24 April l987)
The physics community has traditionally enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for maintenance of high ethical standards and integrity in its professional activities. Indeed, the American Physical Society is one of the few professional societies which has not felt the need for a formal code of ethics. Understandably, physicists have a tendency to take this situation for granted. However, the matter warrants an active awareness on the part of all physicists, for this is a precious asset which deserves continuing support and protection.* It is coupled not only to the reputations of individual physicists and their organizations, but also to the image and credibility of the physics profession as perceived by scientific colleagues, government officials and the American public as a whole.
What are some of the types of misconduct which violate professional integrity? Known instances cover a spectrum ranging from the rather subtle to those that are quite flagrant. Examples include (l) plagiarism, such as the unauthorized use of original material contained in a proposal under peer review, or the unacknowledged use of previously published material; (2) fabrication of data or selective reporting of results; (3) submission of the same paper or trivial variations thereof to more than one publication channel; (4) automatic co-authorship when the individual in question has not made a substantive contribution to the particular work; (5) a reviewer's lack of impartiality; (6) slow response on the part of a referee in order to delay processing of a proposal or a manuscript submitted for publication.
That instances of professional misconduct on the part of physicists are few is a source of satisfaction to all of us. But there is an important operational implication: the high standards of professional integrity in the physics community constitute an honorable tradition that deserves to be carefully maintained and transmitted with enthusiasm to younger colleagues and, ultimately, to future generations. The welfare of the profession depends on it.
* Examples of concerns recently expressed are the remarks of Dr. Frank Press, President of the National Academy of Sciences, in Physics Today, April l987; and the booklet published by Sigma Xi entitled "Honor in Science," (second edition, l986).
