Ethical Consistency and Experience: An Attempt to Influence Researcher Attitudes Toward Questionable Research Practices Through Reading Prompts

Over the past couple of decades, the apparent widespread occurrence of Questionable Research Practices (QRPs) in scientific research has been widely discussed in the research ethics literature as a source of concern. Various ways of reducing their use have been proposed and implemented, ranging from improved training and incentives for adopting best practices to systematic reforms. This article reports on the results of two studies that investigated the efficacy of simple, psychological interventions aimed at changing researcher attitudes toward QRPs. While the interventions did not significantly modify researchers’ reactions to QRPs, they showed differential efficacy depending on scientists’ experience, suggesting complexities in researcher psychology and the ethics of QRPs that merit further study

Mitigation of Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection in Venture Capital Financing: The Influence of the Country’s Institutional Setting

A venture capitalist (VC) needs to trade off benefits and costs when attempting to mitigate agency problems in their investor-investee relationship. We argue that signals of ventures complement the VC’s capacity to screen and conduct a due diligence during the pre-investment phase, but its attractiveness may diminish in institutional settings supporting greater transparency. Similarly, whereas a VC may opt for contractual covenants to curb potential opportunism by ventures in the post-investment phase, this may only be effective in settings supportive of shareholder rights enforcement. Using an international sample of VC contracts, our study finds broad support for these conjectures. It delineates theoretical and practical implications for how investors can best deploy their capital in different institutional settings whilst nurturing their relationships with entrepreneurs

Teaching the Golden Rule

The Golden Rule is endorsed in one form or another by most cultures and major religions and is still espoused by philosophers, business ethicists, and popular business authors. Because it also resonates with undergraduate business majors, it can be an effective teaching tool. This paper describes a way of teaching the Golden Rule through a series of business-oriented examples intended to bring out its strengths and weaknesses. The method described also introduces students to some basic moral reasoning skills and acquaints them with a wide range of moral issues that arise in business. Kant\u27s Formula of Humanity is discussed in the final section as a principle that overcomes at least some of the Golden Rule\u27s defects

Self-Plagiarism and Textual Recycling: Legitimate Forms of Research Misconduct

The concept of self-plagiarism frequently elicits skepticism and generates confusion in the research ethics literature, and the ethical status of what is often called textual recycling is particularly controversial. I argue that, in general, self-plagiarism is unethical because it is deceptive and dishonest. I then distinguish several forms of it and argue against various common rationalizations for textual recycling. I conclude with a discussion of two instances of textual recycling, distinguishing them in terms of their ethical seriousness but concluding that both are ethically problematic

The Educational and Moral Significance of the American Chemical Society\u27s The Chemist\u27s Code of Conduct

While the usefulness of the case study method in teaching research ethics is frequently emphasized, less often noted is the educational value of professional codes of ethics. Much can be gained by having students examine codes and reflect on their significance. This paper argues that codes such as the American Chemical Society‘s The Chemist‘s Code of Conduct are an important supplement to the use of cases and describes one way in which they can be integrated profitably into a class discussion of research ethics