“Why are the principles of science and the ethical guidelines for science so important to research?”

In the entire history of scientific research there has always been some occurrence of misrepresentation of facts for the purposes of defrauding the public and the scientific community. The problem exists today and will likely never cease to exist.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, in the United States, Tobacco Manufacturers conducted studies on the addictive nature of nicotine. These studies concluded that the substance nicotine in tobacco is indeed highly addictive (Rodu, 1995). The resulting suppression of the results of these studies from the public and the government, and outright denial was a serious ethical and legal mistake that has resulted in many lawsuits, settlements, fines, and other government actions in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

The ethical implications of withholding or distorting scientific research goes beyond the immediate harm it may cause. Such actions stand to degrade the overall value of scientific research. Say for example if a component of tobacco had a significant impact in the treatment of diabetes, such a study would be immediately shunned despite any true facts that were revealed.

There is also the issue of unintended biases or objectivity in scientific research. Although, these issues are not as grave as any intentional manipulation, the implications can be the same. Deconstructions may even argue that all scientific research has some degree of bias because it is conducted by humans who are by their nature, objective and biased.

When reviewing scientific research one must consider the source, evaluate the scientific methods used, and discover if similar research has been conducted by using alternative methods, and if the results were the same. In an age of information where data can be published and retrieved in a matter of seconds, now, even more it is important not to accept any results as face value.

References

Fitzgerald, Jack., Cox, Steven. (2002). Research Methods and Statistics in Criminal Justice. Thomson Wadsworth.

Rodu, Brad (1995). We already knew the smoking secret. The Washington Times. December 29, 1995.

APA Citation:
Smith, Nathan. M. (2006). Ethical Guidelines for Science apply to Research.
Retrieved November 22, 2008, from http://www.computer-forensic-technician.com/wordpress/ethical-guidelines-for-science-apply-to-research/.