Category Archives: Academic Integrity

AI and writing: much ado about generated essays

A recent Reddit/Twitter discussion thread on artificial intelligence (AI) and academic writing recently emerged, following claims of a Reddit user to have used AI to write well-graded essays. The Guardian picked up on this discussion with an article entitled “‘Full-on … Continue reading

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A Test in Reproducibility

During his time as Editor-in-Chief for Molecular Brain, Fujita Health University’s Tsuyoshi Miyakawa made requests for raw data for 41 papers marked for revision prior to publication, and the majority of authors failed to respond to this request (in fact, only … Continue reading

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Experiments in Open Access Publishing: Community Efforts Work; Payoff=Learning & Access

Where have I been since July? I’ve been conducting two experiments in open access publishing, volunteering to be: Co-editor for Evidence Summaries at Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, a fully open journal hosted by the University of Alberta (Canada) … Continue reading

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Casey Fiesler’s Tech Ethics Curricula Spreadsheet

Casey Fiesler from UC Boulder (US) has improved the (in some circles) well-known Tech Ethics Curricula spreadsheet, including useful tabs to sample Codes of Ethics grouped by field: Besides simply the number of classes represented here, I think another point … Continue reading

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On the Regulation of Science, with the US EPA as an Example

The most recent issue of Science features an analysis of the intersection of governmental legislation and scientific inquiry, providing also a brief synopsis of accountability in “science bureaucracies” in the US. Highlighting recent legislation related the US Environmental Protection Agency … Continue reading

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Tighter Rules for Nature: Non-Financial Conflicts Declaration

Nature and all Nature Research journals now require authors to declare any non-financial conflicts of interest: Competing interests (both financial and non-financial) are defined as a secondary interest that could directly undermine, or be perceived to undermine, the objectivity, integrity … Continue reading

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“Predation” Update: Beall’s Archive Up and Running

An anonymous scholar is now maintaining an archive of Beall’s List: https://beallslist.weebly.com/ Additional Reading Derek Lowe provides an update, generally, on “predation”: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2018/04/02/predation

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Dr. Thorsten Beck on Image Manipulation Research at Humboldt

New video featuring Dr. Thorsten Beck and image manipulation research at the HEADT Centre — Humboldt-Elsevier Advanced Data and Text Centre. I will use this video in my next doctoral student ethics course.  

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In Memorium, Ben Barres (1955-2017)

An elegant tribute to close mentorship and gender equality advocate Ben Barres, neurobiologist. Excerpt: Barres devoted much of his last decade to publicly describing the challenges he had faced as a woman in science, and offering ways to correct a … Continue reading

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Digital Deceit

Well worth a read (applicable not just to journalism anymore!); excerpt: The central problem is that the entire industry is built to leverage sophisticated technology to aggregate user attention and sell advertising. https://www.newamerica.org/public-interest-technology/policy-papers/digitaldeceit/

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