Research ethics
Research in other fields such as social sciences, information technology, biotechnology, or engineering may generate ethical concerns.
A series of publicized scandals in the United States led to heightened debate on the ethical norms of sciences and the limitations of the self-regulation processes implemented by scientific communities and institutions.
[10] Following the development of codes of conduct, taxonomies of non-ethical uses have been significantly expanded, beyond the long-established forms of scientific fraud (plagiarism, falsification and fabrication of results).
Definitions of "questionable research practices" and the debate over reproducibility also target a grey area of dubious scientific results, which may not be the outcome of voluntary manipulations.
The concrete impact of codes of conduct and other measures put in place to ensure research integrity remain uncertain.
Several case studies have highlighted that while the principles of typical codes of conduct adhere to common scientific ideals, they are seen as remote from actual work practices and their efficiency is criticized.
International codes of conduct and national legislation on research integrity have officially endorsed open sharing of scientific output (publications, data, and code used to perform statistical analyses on the data[clarification needed]) as ways to limit questionable research practices and to enhance reproducibility.
[16] In addition there are public health implications attached to the promotion of medical or other interventions based on false or fabricated research findings.
[27][28] As this field continues to develop and change throughout history, the focus remains on fair, balanced, and moral thinking across all cultural and religious backgrounds around the world.
[29][30] The field of medical ethics encompasses both practical application in clinical settings and scholarly work in philosophy, history, and sociology.
Examples of vulnerable populations include incarcerated persons, children, prisoners, soldiers, people under detention, migrants, persons exhibiting insanity or any other condition that precludes their autonomy, and to a lesser extent, any population for which there is reason to believe that the research study could seem particularly or unfairly persuasive or misleading.
Published in Social Sciences & Medicine (2009) several authors suggested that research ethics in a medical context is dominated by principlism.
