Professional ethics:
Brian reminds us not to mistake the lull in the action in "Aetogate" (the charges of unethical conduct by Spencer Lucas and colleagues) for a resolution to the matter. We're still waiting for the ruling from the Society for Vertebrate...
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Posted on April 12, 2008 6:47 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Objectively judging facts? Objectively judging friends?
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Posted on February 23, 2008 4:03 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
What are senior scientists doing to push back against misconduct? (You
are pushing back, aren't you?)
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Posted on February 19, 2008 3:49 PM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Are there any good options to respond to the wrongdoing of those with way more power than you?
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Posted on February 18, 2008 3:01 PM • 24 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
You've probably heard that UCLA scientist Edythe London, whose house was earlier vandalized to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars by animal rights activists, has once again been targeted. This time an incendiary device was left on her...
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Posted on February 14, 2008 7:19 PM • 34 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Why don't advisors and trainees talk about what's involved in being a grown-up scientist?
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Posted on February 7, 2008 4:13 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Getting across the chasm between science student and scientist.
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Posted on February 5, 2008 3:19 PM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Are some scientific disciplines more populated with shady characters than others?
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Posted on February 4, 2008 12:42 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In response to my earlier post on the allegations of ethical lapses among a group of paleontologists studying aetosaurs, a reader sent me a message posted to a public mailing list of vertebrate paleontologists. The message gives a glimpse of...
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Posted on February 1, 2008 2:17 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Revere already flagged this story, but I'm going to try to move beyond the forehead slapping to some analysis of why a journal's confidentiality rules might matter. (I'll leave it to Bill, Bora, Jean-Claude, and their posse to explain how...
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Posted on February 1, 2008 12:48 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A recent news item by Rex Dalton in Nature [1] caught my attention. From the title ("Fossil reptiles mired in controversy") you might think that the aetosaurs were misbehaving. Rather, the issue at hand is whether senior scientists at the...
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Posted on January 31, 2008 12:51 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Science blog readers can help science bloggers figure out their responsibilities.
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Posted on January 23, 2008 5:16 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In light of the ongoing flap about Iowa State University's decision to deny tenure to Guillermo Gonzalez, I thought it might be worth looking at an actual university policy on tenure -- the policy in place at my university --...
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Posted on December 12, 2007 8:40 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In response to my open letter to the ACS, Rudy Baum, the Editor in Chief of Chemical & Engineering News, emailed me some information which I am posting here with his kind permission:...
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Posted on October 31, 2007 5:45 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Like Revere and the folks at The Scientist, I received the series of emails from "ACS insider" questioning the way the American Chemical Society is running its many publications -- and in particular, how compensation of ACS executives (and close...
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Posted on October 25, 2007 8:32 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Perhaps you've already seen the new(ish) AAUP report Freedom in the Classroom, or Michael Bérubé's commentary on it at Inside Higher Ed yesterday. The report is such a clear statement of what a professor's freedom in the classroom amounts to...
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Posted on September 12, 2007 2:57 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Janet D. Stemwedel (whose nom de blog is Dr. Free-Ride) is an assistant professor of philosophy at San Jose State University. Before becoming a philosopher, she earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. Email her at dr.freeride@gmail.com.
