Platform for Ethics and Technology

Deadline July 1st, 2009

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Organized by Platform for Ethics and Technology and Promood

Although for many fields there are guidelines about authorship and co-authorship and which positions are assigned to whom, it is often the case that lists of authors are not discussed, but imposed upon. Departmental and other politics often affects who gets to put his or her name on which article and authorship seems to be more to do with maintaining territorial rights, colonialisation and empire building.

So who is an author of a paper? What does it involve to be an author? Ad Lagendijk, in his Survival Guide for Scientists (Amsterdam University Press, 2009), notes the following (p.59):

Each and every author of a paper should understand the basics of that paper. Each and every author should be able to give a presentation on the content of that paper. With an increasing number of multidisciplinary papers this moral standard becomes more and more difficult to uphold.

A real moral problem is the specialist who has something that is indispensable for your research - a sample for instance. The specialist understands nothing of your work, but he requests to be co-author on all the papers where you publish results obtained with his sample.

A good compromise is to put him on the first paper - sandwiched between a number of other co-authors - and leave him out on all future papers.

Which brings to light the importance of the position in the list of authors as well. So, who’s on first, what’s on second? Are you in any way responsible for the contents of a paper when you’re an author?

Promood and the Platform for Ethics and Technology are happy to announce that Dr. David Koepsell, our expert on scientific integrity, will shine his light on this fascinating topic on June 11, 2009 between 12 and 1.30pm at the Sports and Culture Centre (room number to be announced).

There will be a free lunch, please send an e-mail before June 8 to Saskia Polder (s.e.polder@tudelft.nl) when you’d like to attend.

Watch Mekelprize award ceremony and opening of conference on Privacy in Social Network Sites

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Thursday May 15th, 12 - 2 pm (lunch will be arranged for) Location: a1.270 (the big group decision room) in the TPM-building 

As a young scientist, you will often encounter dilemma’s regarding scientific integrity. The contents of your research may also raise all kinds of ethical issues, for example on risks, sustainability or other potential consequences for society. What would be the best way to deal with them? Promood and the Platform for Ethics and Technology together organize a workshop on the ethics of engineering research for PhD students to explore this question.

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If you would like to participate, please send an e-mail to e.t.oosterlaken-at-tudelft.nl. There is room for 20 participants at most. Registration will be on a first-come, first-serve base.

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Lunchdebate on Wednesday, May 23, 2007

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Sorry, this entry is only available in Nederlands.