Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Academic Professional's Misconduct

The following is a part of the article in the handbook related to the academic professionals misconduct in research and searching for the truth and I found it alarming yet very interesting.

"A climate must be maintained at the University where creativity and productivity in research are promoted in an atmosphere of high ethical standards. It is essential that the integrity of research be maintained at all times, since long-standing, often irreversible damage can result from breach of academic commitment to truth in investigative activities. Misconduct in research is herein defined as gross lack of integrity in conducting basic or clinical investigations involving dishonesty, knowing misrepresentation of data, and/or violation of accepted standards. Academic misconduct or fraud can destroy public trust in the academic community as a whole and in our own institution in particular; it can shatter individual careers; it can undermine sensitive relationships between investigators, students, and the public.

In modern collaborative research, the implications of academic misconduct or fraud go far beyond the individual; they also affect collaborators whose own work has been committed to objective search for truth. The specter of guilt by association may lurk in the background for many years to come. Therefore, joint authorship requires joint responsibility; each author claiming credit for the entire work must also be aware of joint discredit. Investigators in collaborative research projects each must make reasonable and periodic inquiry as to the integrity of and processes involved in gathering and evaluating data. It should be understood that overall responsibility for the integrity of collaborative research rests with the principal investigator. Senior investigators cannot be allowed to escape the consequences of the discovery of misconduct or fraud committed under their supervision."


Regarding the professionals at the institutions of teaching the theory of gravity, I wonder how can they teach their students without having a guilty conscience that the gravitational dipole moment doesn't exist after being informed of the theory of dipole gravity. It will take a second to realize that there is a serious mistake in the books of gravitation. They should know they are lying when they teach that faulty concept in their classes. The excuse of an honest mistake, or having not been informed, no longer applies here. I think it is basically the same as academic cheating, because it is an act of knowingly misleading the students. Is this the way the scientists of today should conduct in the University where we expect the people to have the highest ethical standard?

I'm interested in the widest dissemination of the important scientific truth for the benefit of mankind. If it requires to dragging em into the court for the criminal academic misconduct, although I sincerely hope it doesn't have to go that far, I may have to consider it as an option.

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