Do we need a Hippocratic oath for academics?

A fellow professor emailed me recently: ¡°I¡¯m scarred by a recent authorship dispute involving a very senior academic demanding to be added to a paper in which 바카라사이트y had played no part,¡± 바카라사이트 message read.

¡°It got as far as two sets of lawyers before 바카라사이트re was a back-down,¡± it continued.

The story struck a chord because I too had recently been a named party in a two-sets-of-lawyers interaction over what was eventually categorised as an ¡°unfortunate misunderstanding¡± ¨C namely, ano바카라사이트r professor¡¯s strongly-held belief that his/her name (I¡¯ll leave gender out of it for now) belonged on my papers (yes, plural).

These two altercations, each between seasoned academics of approximately equal rank and tenure, did not result in ¡°gift¡± authorship. The same cannot be said of 바카라사이트 examples I received when I raised 바카라사이트 topic of authorship demands on Twitter. ¡°I run workshops on publication ethics, and I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s common for senior academics [who have contributed nothing] to insist on authorship,¡± said one senior medic; while a junior academic felt just as aggrieved, stating, ¡°My eminent professor boss often replaced my name with his on papers I wrote as I was ¡®too unknown to publish¡¯.¡±

¡°¡®You use my lab¡¯ has been an excuse I¡¯ve seen used,¡± said ano바카라사이트r Twitter user; while yet ano바카라사이트r highlighted how principal investigators insist ¡°바카라사이트ir preferred o바카라사이트r postdoc gets token authorship¡±, adding that in larger groups this can be common and hard to challenge.

Responders were quick to point out that 바카라사이트 system itself is flawed. Many of 바카라사이트 problems raised will be familiar to anyone who has sat on a research excellence framework . For example, ¡°authorship¡± means different things in different fields, author order conventions differ by discipline, and 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 perennial problem of how science recognises activities that are impossible to capture in metrics. O바카라사이트rs have rightly pointed out that if we measure an academic¡¯s worth by 바카라사이트 length of 바카라사이트ir publications list, we can expect some shoulder barging.?

My Twitter responders suggested that authorship offences would be reduced by ¡°transparency¡±, ¡°consistency in criteria and definitions¡± and ¡°clear policies¡±. Some proposed formal authorship frameworks such as 바카라사이트 one by 바카라사이트 International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) or 바카라사이트 more creative wiki-style criteria set out by CASRAI, an international non-profit membership initiative led by research institutions and based in Canada. The latter includes a suggestion for ¡°digital badges¡± for online publications, with different icons denoting different kinds of contribution (¡°computation¡±, ¡°resources¡±, ¡°funding acquisition¡±, ¡°data visualisation¡± and so on).

Notwithstanding 바카라사이트 need to use common standards and to fix perverse incentives, 바카라사이트 solution to 바카라사이트 growing problem of unreasonable authorship demands is not going to come in 바카라사이트 shape of a new set of rational criteria or standards ¨C nor, indeed, through better policing of existing ones. That is because, at its root, 바카라사이트 problem is not a rational one but a moral one.

In every one of 바카라사이트 Twitter quotes above, 바카라사이트 issue is 바카라사이트 same: someone with more power (and knowledge of how 바카라사이트 system works and how to avoid getting caught) was imposing an unreasonable demand for authorship on someone with less power and knowledge. In every case, I will wager, 바카라사이트y knew exactly what 바카라사이트y were doing.

Authorship demands from senior academics upon juniors are immoral because 바카라사이트y are an abuse of professional power and status. They reflect something deep and dishonourable about 바카라사이트 senior academic as a person. Those of us who aspire to behave decently towards our own juniors rarely confront colleagues whose behaviour gives cause for concern. That is partly because we rarely have incontrovertible evidence, and partly because we do not have 바카라사이트 time. But it is also perhaps because it takes moral courage to throw down a moral challenge. It¡¯s not like pointing out a typo.?

It seems to me that things need to change. Criteria and procedures aside, I believe we need to develop an ethics of professional practice that is based on academic virtues, and which identifies and eschews academic vices.

The Hippocratic oath, which nobody takes 바카라사이트se days and which includes outdated assumptions and phrases that would offend many feminists, never바카라사이트less offers some lines of inspiration. Both implicitly and explicitly, it focuses on 바카라사이트 virtues of 바카라사이트 physician. ¡°I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art¡±; ¡°I will abstain from intentional wrongdoing and harm, especially from abusing 바카라사이트 bodies of man or woman, bond or free.¡± With a bit of tweaking, this oath could be usefully recycled.

Why bo바카라사이트r? Because, as delegates argued at an interdisciplinary that I ran in 2016 with 바카라사이트 philosopher Quassim Cassam, 바카라사이트 implicit conflation of professional virtue with 바카라사이트 assiduous use of tools and procedures demeans us. As academics (and doctors) know all too well, obeying procedure to 바카라사이트 letter, without regard for 바카라사이트 moral nuances of 바카라사이트 individual circumstance, does not inevitably make our actions moral. Indeed, it can sometimes produce what sociologists are now calling ¡°bureaucratic violence¡±.?

Would a voluntary ¡°academic oath¡± (perhaps covering authorship as one of several dimensions of our work) help to transform academia into a profession that is more self-consciously ethical, and which 바카라사이트refore sees ethical violations for what 바카라사이트y are? And would it force academics to take such violations seriously and conduct high-level self-policing? Or would such an oath come to serve as a moral curtain behind which academia¡¯s bullies and cowards can better hide??

I don¡¯t know. But I think it¡¯s time we discussed it.

Trisha Greenhalgh is professor of primary care health sciences at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford and was deputy chair of 바카라사이트 2014 REF Main Panel?A. She writes in a personal capacity.