The Implementation of Academic Ethics as a Background for Ethical Approach to the Research Activities: the Lithuanian Experience

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The Implementation of Academic Ethics as a
Background for Ethical Approach to the Research
Activities the Lithuanian Experience

• Aleksandras Vasiljevas
• Lithuania
• Center for Business/Applied ethics, Vilnius
  University
• E-mail verslo_etika_at_vukhf.lt

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The Implementation of Academic Ethics as a
Background for Ethical Approach to the Research
Activities the Lithuanian Experience

• Academic ethics and the process of ethics
  institutionalization
• Individual and organization ethics different
  approaches and different results
• Academic ethics - the paradigm of organization
  ethics
• Ethics Infrastructure as a tool for constructing
  academic integrity
• Ethics problems in academic practice
• Lithuanian experience common features and
  peculiarities
• University and the prospects of academic ethics

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Academic ethics and the process of ethics
institutionalization

• universities expression of their engagement in
  ethics
• mission,
• vision,
• codes of conduct or related documents,
• ethics committees

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Academic ethics as a field of science requires
scientific methodological background and
analytical level of researches

• The theme of scientific researches The
  processes of ethics institutionalization on meso
  and macro levels in Vilnius university covers
  the issues of academic ethics
• Journal of academic ethics (Kluwer Academic
  Publishers)
• It is a forum for discussion of original research
  on a broad range of ethical considerations in
  research, teaching, administration and
  governance.
• Focuses the need for sustained inquiry into the
  values, purposes and functions of academic
  institutions responsible for the creation and
  dissemination of knowledge

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Academic ethics - the paradigm of organization
ethics

• Organization (business) ethics as
  inter-disciplinary science from philosophy to
  management.
• Responsibility for ethical practice is not only
  the concern of separate persons, but the
  corporate responsibility of organization
  (academic institution).
• Promotion of ethical professional activity by
  organizing Workplace Ethics.
• Corporate ethics standards become the integral
  component of organizations management.
• Managing ethics standards in universities.

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• Responsibility for ethical practice is not only
  the concern of separate persons, but the
  corporate responsibility of academic institution.
  It creates the work environment that motivate its
  staff to behave ethically or vice versa

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• Academic ethics is a commitment, observed without
  fail, to its fundamental values. These values
  determine principles of behaviour that enable
  academic communities to incarnate the ideals into
  action. That is to construct academic integrity.

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Distinction Between Values and Reality in
Individual and Organization ethics
Values ought to (what I should be)
What is the standard for being a professional
What organization) should be (university values)
INTEGRITY
What professional I am
What organization is (university action)
Reality is (what I am)
Individual ethics
Organization ethics
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Ethics Infrastructureas a tool for
constructing academic integrity

• Ethics codes
• Ethics committees
• Ethics officers, counsellors
• Ethics training
• Ethical auditing
• Ethics hotlines
• Roundtable meetings and discussion circles
• Legal acts correlating with ethics codes
• Applied (professional, business) ethics centres

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The Fundamental Values of academic ethics

• Integrity
• Responsibility
• Honesty
• Compliance
• Fairness
• Trust
• New Professionalism

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Typical violations of academic ethics

• Fabrication
• Plagiarism
• Forgery
• Cheating
• Unauthorized Assistance
• Multiple submission
• Imposed co-authorship
• Mobbing (Bullying)
• Conflict of interests
• Corruption and Nepotism
• Discrimination

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One pattern of violations Mobbing

• Stipulated by the absence of organizational
  ethics, lack of objective indicators , clear-cut
  rules, criteria of performance and the validity
  of principle of universalism or their ignorance.
• The latter obviously indicate the gap between
  declared values and real academic life, which is
  the challenge to academic integrity
• And organisation ethics on meso-level can solve
  most part of these problems it must be done as
  ethical decision making and essential
  transformation of organisation managerial
  structure.

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The pattern Women discrimination in science.
European actualities EC- FP-6 Call Women in
science.

• Elimination of the shortcoming
• To deepen public understanding and increase
  social sensitivity to ethical aspects in women
  discrimination in science
• To highlight the importance of universalism
  principle in diminishing gender discrimination
• To conduct analysis of typical and unique cases
  of womens status and identify the ethical
  aspects to be specially accentuated in gender
  strategies in science, especially on the state
  level
• To establish ethical measures for remodelling and
  reconstructing social attitudes and unfavourable
  conditions in particular academic structures
  which sustain discrimination in the field.

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Students academic dishonesty and its attendant
circumstances

• Advertisements and proposals in mass media
• Internet WEB-site www.tingiu.lt (I am lazy)
• the student essay (term paper, exam paper)
  Ethics and social responsibility from
  24/04/2004 downloaded 1390 times the essay
  Ethics code of X company from 04/04.2004
  downloaded 1415 times

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The process of ethics infrastructure formation in
Lithuanian universities

• ethics codes
• ethics committees (commissions)
• ethics courses for students (only)
• Non-uniform process In Kaunas University of
  Technology Ethics code was formally introduced in
  1999. ltgt The Vilnius University code of conduct
  is to be introduced in 2004 (its draft is under
  the discussion)

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Shortcomings of ethics codes

• pretentiousness (declarativeness)
• paternalistic attitude to students
• prescriptive character (in the spirit of moral
  sermon)
• transfer of the norm of traditional normative
  ethics to organisation life (unawareness of
  organisation ethics paradigm)
• not regarded as a tool for self-regulation in
  organisation, but as one more instrument of
  administrative pressure.

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Ethical paradigms
Traditional Ethics
Contemporary Ethics
Paradigm of professional, organizational ethics
Paradigm of individual ethics
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• The ethics in researches can be practically
  realised only if the more general issues of
  academic ethics are solved. That is why it is
  important to regenerate or to form high standard
  of university life in all its aspects as a
  response to the society expectation and in
  accordance with declared mission of a university.
  
• Contemporary ethics possess the whole
  infrastructure, required techniques to assist in
  realization of this mission in practice.