When post-docs and graduate students finish their projects in a research laboratory they leave their notebooks behind. Those belong to the principal investigator who runs the lab. Graduate students often have a hard time understanding this policy so Janet Stemwedel explains it on
Adventures in Ethics and Science.
The original article is
Lab notebooks and graduate research: what should the policy be? and the followup is
Kept all my notebooks; what good are notebooks?.
This is a good example of an ethical problem in science.
Thanks for providing those links, Larry, I didn't usually check on Adventures in Ethics and Science; I will now.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good example of an ethical problem in science.
I agree; does this mean you have found a good working definition of the word "ethics"? Earlier posts led me to think you did not have a definition you were fully comfortable with.
I'd prefer to carry a CD with a pdf of my lab book.
ReplyDeleteA completely different issue is intellectual property. In a legal sense everything you developed belongs to your employer (at least here in Germany). However, in a broader sense I don't see any reason to leave any of my ideas to someone who calls himself principle investigator but made his career on the ideas of his former bosses, students and postdocs. Luckily, there are not too many of such guys around and I actually like to discuss projects with my former bosses in which I was involved before.
I got sent over here by Greg Laden. You have a great blog!
ReplyDeleteI do have one quibble about this post, though. A "principle" investigator would be concerned with ethics but might not be in charge of any postdocs or laboratory assistants. A "principal" investigator, on the other hand, would be the one whose grant they all work on.
thebrummell asks,
ReplyDeleteI agree; does this mean you have found a good working definition of the word "ethics"? Earlier posts led me to think you did not have a definition you were fully comfortable with.
I'm pretty comfortable with the idea that ethics is concerned with appropriate behavior. We can teach students that plagiarism is bad, that they should share the workload with their lab partners, and give credit to others when it's appropriate.
In these cases the "correct" ethics is defined by the consensus in society and enforced by rules, regulations, and grades. There's not very much debate over these points so, in a very real sense, there are no ethical "problems" to discuss in class.
The issue of who owns your notebooks is debatable. There are legitimate points of view on both sides. Thus, it's a good example of an ethical problem.
I'm much less comfortable with the idea that discussions about cloning, stem cell research, and genetically modified foods have anything to do with ethics. They aren't ethical "problems" because most people aren't in a quandary about the right choice.
I have no objections to cloning humans, for example, provided it's safe. This is not an ethical problem for me. Many people are totally opposed to cloning because it's playing God. It's not an ethical problem for them either.
The issue of who owns your notebooks is debatable. There are legitimate points of view on both sides. Thus, it's a good example of an ethical problem.
ReplyDeleteAh, I understand. Thank you.