Juan Martín López-Calva. juanmartin.lopez@upaep.mx

María del Carmen de la Luz Lanzagorta.

marucha_delaluz@yahoo.com.mx UPAEP

Puebla, México

Judgment of value

Judgment of fact

The problem of modern science

Judgment of fact

“Objective”

Axiologically neutral

Judgment of value

Subjective

Axiological implications

Axiological neutrality of science

However, scientific knowledge has always ethical foundations

and consequences

Judgment of fact

(Knowledge)

Judgment of value

(Ethics)

Scientific knowledge and ethical responsibility

“A third determination of the notion of judgment is that it involves a personal commitment…A judgment is the responsibility of the one that judges. It is a personal commitment”

• (Lonergan,1978, p. 272)

Ethics and research (Products)

Knowledge generation

(The goal of

research)

Ethical dimension

(Implications of the knowledge produced in terms of human good or evil)

Scientific research needs ethically worthwhile ends and valid means

Ethics and research (Process)

Knowledge produced by scientific research

(Purposes of research activity)

Process of knowledge generation

(means of research activity)

Conceptions of researchers who are members of the National Research System (SNI) in a

Mexican private university.

Juan Martín López Calva juanmartin.lopez@upaep.mx, Martha Leticia Gaeta González marthaleticia.gaeta@upaep.mx,

María del Carmen De la Luz Lanzagorta mariadel.delaluz@upaep.mx, Paulina Iturbide Fernández paulina.iturbide@upaep.mx

Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, México.

Research subjects

Gender

Number

of

research

subjects

SNI Level Number of

research subjects

Age Years as

members of SNI

Scientific area

(CONACyT)

Number

of

research

subjects Mean Std.

Dev.

Mean Std.

Dev.

Female

5

Candidate 1

47.4

8.26

5.0

2.55

3 1

Level 1

4

4

5

6

1

1

2

Male

10

Candidate 1

44.0

11.34

3.4

3.36

2 1

Level 1

9

2

4

5

7

1

3

4

1

CONACYT Scientific areas: 2. Biology and Chemistry; 3. Medicine and Health; 4. Humanities and behavioral sciences 5. Social Sciences; 6. Biotechnology and Agricultural sciences; 7. Engineering

Research tools and analysis

Semistructured interview

-The interview guide is founded on theoretical contributions by Edgar Morin (2001, 2006) and Francois Vallaeys (2014), in addition to previous research about professional ethics.

-All the interviews were recorded on audio, following an ethical protocol for obtaining and processing information

-Content analysis

Results

Conceptions about professional ethics in scientific research

• There is agreement that in general, professional ethics is simply the application of ethics within the scope of practice of a profession.

• It means to adhere to standards and moral values; not cheating; being authentic, honest and self-critical; working with much rigor in processing and analyzing information and giving credit and recognition to all those involved in a research process.

• Consulting primitive original query documents or bibliographic sources and meticulousness in the case of researchers working in the field of history of different disciplines, the need to document all sources used, respecting the values of each person.

• Professional ethics is seen as the signing of an implicit contract between the institution and the researcher to regulate his or her behavior, the way the researcher works and the way he or she gets the job done.

• Most respondents agree that the researcher must be ethical not only as a scholar but as a person.

• One of the researchers identifies professional ethics as "doing things right " but equates doing things right to working objectively and ”to follow the scientific method“.

• Recognizing the dignity of the research subjects is another element of ethical behavior identified by the researchers of our sample.

Relationship between scientific knowledge and professional

ethics • Researchers generally agree with a disagreement about the view of axiological

neutrality of scientific knowledge and the idea that objective knowledge has no ethical implications. – On one hand responses that suggest that if a researcher strictly follows the scientific method,

the results of their work will necessarily be ethical. One the other hand, responses who problematize this relationship mentioned things like " ... even the most abstract things ... there is always a kind of ethical imperative”.

– Some more researchers identify certain standards that are considered characteristic of objective science as ethical standards.

– Another group of responses postulate that some rules of formal logic (say only the necessary and no more, say only what is true, say things understandably) are ethical rules.

• It is also interesting that researchers identify the relationship between scientific knowledge and ethics through the commitment of the search for truth, even if what is discovered as true does not match expectations or personal positions. – "Even if it is contrary to my beliefs, my prior knowledge , or should I keep trueness and that is

something that should prevail in any investigation regardless of what the case ... " – The obligation not to manipulate the data obtained from the process of generating

knowledge.

Categories Criteria and professional values that should guide the research activity

Research process Attachment and love of truth

Transparency and objectivity

Innovation, genuineness and significant contribution to the field of knowledge

Rigor , clarity , brevity and elegance

Ethical information management

social , financial institution and responsibility

Avoid repeating unnecessary experiments

Subjects / objects of

study

Ethical conduct research subjects using

Offer something in return to those who participate as research subjects

Use letter of informed consent

Protect and preserve human dignity

Respect to living beings including animals or cell samples

Researcher Respect the dignity of persons

Consider the community aspect of research : work in team bonding and alliances .

A correct citation

Consider family values and the institution

Maturity / Stubbornness

Empathy towards the other

Autonomy

Generosity / share information

not transgress

having opening

intellectual honesty

Justice

Humility, simplicity and willingness to receive criticism

Have not only economic but scientific interest

Integrity in research

Some conclusions

• It can be said that there is a full agreement among researchers in the conception of professional ethics while a wealth of nuances in interpretation.

• The agreement focuses on understanding professional ethics as compliance with certain rules relating to the common good in the researcher's work , which are based on the principle of respect for the dignity of every person.

• This implies related rigor in the query and data analysis behaviors, to give credit to all those who contribute to a research project and to the sources used, to think about the impact of the findings on the research subjects involved and on the society in general and to consider as a priority the positive impact on human and justice that all scientific work must have regardless of the discipline.

• Coincidence is seen in their thinking that most of their colleagues carry out their research work in an ethical manner, while recognizing that there are unfortunately some others that do not, which affects the desirable social commitment of research activity.