Ethics in

Markus Wikowski Ethics

• First systemacally defined by Aristotle as a separate philosophical field. Part of praccal philosophy, including ethics, economy, polics. • The subject of ethics is moral human acng and reasoning, i.e. what makes acng a morally good acng? • The procedure is systemac, results should be jusfied and intersubjecve • Not moralizing, not influenced by ideologies Categories: descripve / normave

• Descripve: which acng is common in a group or a society, which acng is generally accepted as moral acng? Who is widely accepted as a moral exemplar, how does this person act? • Normave: Prescripve. Seng up of rules. How shall acng be? Higher risk to be subjecve, influenced by a certain ideology. Criteria need to be jusfiable, verifiable, need possibility to queson them • It is not self-evident that there is any generally accepted norm. Goodwill is required. Categories: descripve / normave

• Descripve: which acng is common in a group or a society, which acng is generally accepted as moral acng? Who is widely accepted as a moral exemplar, how does this person act? • Normave: Prescripve. Seng up of rules. How shall acng be? Higher risk to be subjecve, influenced by a certain ideology. Criteria need to be jusfiable, verifiable, need possibility to queson them • It is not self-evident that there is any generally accepted norm. Goodwill is required. Professional ethics

• Different professions have certain cultures, code of conduct, best pracces • Responsibility for the society • Reputaon of the profession • Certain values within the profession • In parcular, research ethics reflects the moral grounds on which researchers do research, and their internal and external responsibility Astronomy • The oldest natural science • Very important for sociees throughout human evoluon by providing informaon on me, calendars, seasons, our place in the universe, etc.; Nowadays climate change (greenhouse effect), asteroid impact avoidance, exo-planets/exo-life • For a long me there was a close connecon between astronomy, religion, art, magic (e.g. Stonehenge) • Modern astronomy is decoupled from such fields. Also people nowadays are more disconnected from the sky due to light polluon, spending most me in big cies and buildings, and modern jobs are disconnected from . • There is sll a big public interest in astronomy. • Object of interest is observed, not created/manipulated /Working areas

• Universies, research centers, observatories • Work part of their me on research • Have other dues, e.g. teaching, instrument building, operaons & support • Serve as referees for papers, on me allocaon commiees, grant panels, selecon commiees, mentors, write recommendaon leers, some have managerial dues as employers, etc

Which are, in your opinion, the most important 2-3 values for the professional work of an ? Results (card technique), in approximate order of menonings • Honesty/ Objecvity/ Integrity • Create new ideas for the community/ Provide knowledge to the public • Open-minded/ Creavity • Collaboraon • Crical thinking • Neutrality/Fairness • Respect • Acknowledge help & sources • Reliability • Persistence • Empathy in outreach & teaching Small Poll from 2009 • Honesty. Respect the truth and publish full results. Transparency. Communicate to the public/be honest with the public. • Respect intellectual property. Respect ideas/ follow scienfic method. • Flexibility/the ability to change one’s ideas. Imaginaon. Openness. Knowledge. • Appreciang others. Ability to work with others. Trying to treat colleagues and their work as oneself would want to be treated. Keep good tempered when very red. Help the young where you can. European Commission/ Ethics for researchers (FP 7) • Legal basis: Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Arcle 13: “The arts and scienfic research shall be free of constraint. Academic freedom shall be respected” • We have to act responsibly with this freedom, both internally and externally. In parcular, we need to respect: – Art. 3: Right to the integrity of the person. – Art. 7: Respect for private and family life – Art. 8: Protecon of personal data – Work environment/ internal rules EC: Ethics for Researchers (FP 7) • Data Protecon and Privacy (health informaon, genec informaon, criminal records, financial informaon, travel records, informaon on religious beliefs and sexual orientaon or ethnic idenficaon records) • Informed consent (adequate informaon, voluntariness, competence) • Research on human embryo’s and foetuses • Dual use (research that could be misused for criminal or terrorist purposes) • Animal research • Research involving developing countries (beneficial to all stakeholders, comply with relevant European legislaon, naonal legislaon and with the relevant accepted internaonal standards; if local resources are used, this should be adequately compensated, potenally vulnerable populaons need to be able to provide genuine informed consent, relevant local and independent ethic approvals need to be provided) EC: Charter for researchers • Research freedom; limitaons to this freedom • Ethical principles (recognized ethical pracces) • Professional responsibility (relevant to society and does not duplicate research) • Professional atude (research environment, funding mechanisms, approvals) • Contractual and legal obligaons • Accountability (toward employer, funders, society) • Good pracce in research (safe, legislaon) • Disseminaon, exploitaon of results (research is fruiul, results exploited commercially, or made accessible to the public) • Public engagement (can be understood by non-specialists) • Relaon with supervisors • Supervision and managerial dues (supervisors, mentors, career advisors, leaders, project coordinators, managers, science communicstors) • Connuing professional development EC: Requirements for Employers • Recognion of the profession • Non-discriminaon • Research environment • Working condions • Stability and permanence of employment • Funding and salaries • Gender balance • Career development • Value of mobility • Access to research training and connuous development • Access to career advice • Intellectual property rights • Co-authorship • Supervision • Teaching • Evaluaon/appraisal systems • Complaints/appeals • Parcipaon in decision-making bodies • Recruitment EC: Recruitment of researchers

• Selecon • Transparency • Judging merit • Variaons in the chronological order of CVs • Recognion of mobility experience • Recognion of qualificaons • Seniority • Postdoctoral appointments

Which are, in your opinion, ethical issues that typically occur in the professional life of an astronomer? Results (brainstorming) • Selecon of data • Intrinsic biases in panels/ peer-review processes • Hierarchical problems • Not acknowledging work of others • Stealing of ideas • Referee process • Conflicts of interest • Publishing of results that are known to be wrong • Not publishing negave results • Copying mainstream ideas without crical thinking • Plagiarism • Not giving back to society • Conferences in exoc/remote locaons • Authorlists • Abuse of power • Lack of cultural or environmental appreciaon Small poll from 2009

• Providing and being given proper credit, especially to students. • Data manipulaon (intenonally or unintenonally) • Manipulaon of citaons • Abusing a referee process/use of confidenal informaon • Abusing hierarchical or mentoring structure • Building observatories at culturally or ecologically sensive places, or in poor countries • Following expensive projects that are risky and might not give results • Not improving the quality of people’s lifes in the short & medium term • Balancing work & home life • Fair shared of publicaons/autorlist and fair access to data • Compeon within the team for the best data or the best students • Marginalizing researchers that are le out of big collaboraons Ethical standards in astronomy by Paul Kalas (Decadal Survey), 2009 • Authorship and publicaons (plagiarism, falsificaon, and fabricaon; publicaons are a key metric for scienfic success) • Data and the research record (failure to retain research data, refusing reasonable access to research data, misrepresenng speculaons as fact or releasing preliminary research results without sufficient data to allow crical review, selecng and reporng data to improve the appearance of data or to increase its significance, suppressing negave data) • Environmental ethics Professional and ethical standards for the AAS journals • Ethics • Plagiarism and republicaon • Aribuon and citaon pracce • Conflicts of interest • Confidenality guidelines • Professional conduct and civility • Invesgaon of misconduct allegaons The A&A policy concerning plagiarism and improper aribuon • Plagiarism: reproducing text or other content from work wrien by others without giving proper credit to the source of that content (also paraphrasing text) • Self-plagiarism (when authors cite text from their own previously published works) • Must cite the original reference and include text in quotaon marks. Figures may only be reproduced with permission and must be cited in the figure capon. A brief discussion of previous results is usually more relevant than direct quotaon • Should cite previously published papers that are directly relevant • Improper aribuon: Deliberate refusal to cite prior, corroborang, or contradictory results Summary/ Discussion

• Based on today’s quesons & answers, we do agree on common values in astronomy and on common moral problems in our field • We are tempted to unethical behavior in our everyday life, especially in gray areas, and need to be aware of it • It helps to discuss with others when we encounter situaons that we feel are morally problemac References

• Das Europäische Parlament 2000: Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Europeanm Union, Official Journal of the European Communies (2000/C 364/01) • European Commission 2005: EUR 21620 – The European Charter for Researchers. The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publicaons of the European Communies 2005, ISBN 92-894-9311-9 • European Commission 2013: Ethics for Researchers – Facilitang Reasearch Excellence in FP7, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publicaons of the European Communies 2013, ISBN 978-92-79-28854-8 • Kalas, Paul 2009, University of California, BerkeleyEthical standards for astronomy, Decadal Survey • Professional and ethical standards for the AAS journals, ApJS, 167, 101-102 (2006) • A&A, Ethical issues: www.aanda.org • Pieper, A. 2007: Einführung in die Ethik, A. Fracke Verlag Tübingen und Basel (6. Auflage, 2007), ISBN 978-3-8252-1637-5 Further reading

• Nature’s guide for mentors (2007), Nature 447, 14 • Bullock, M. A. 2005: Astronomy and Ethics, hp://www.boulder.swri.edu/~bullock/ astro_ethics.pdf • Paul Kalas, Astronomy Ethics Course, University of Berkeley, hp://w.astro.berkeley.edu/~kalas/ethics/index.html • Leslie J. Sage 2012, In Organizaons, People and Strategies in Astronomy I (OPSA I), (Ed. A. Heck), 279-283 (also other arcles from this volume) • Petersen, A. M. et al. 2014 “A quantave perspecve on ethics in large team science”, arXiv:1404.0191