【交流】Nature Reviews Neuroscience 前任编辑 Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十一讲：科研伦理和论文发表道德

Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十一讲

Ethics: following good practice


科研伦理和论文发表道德：那些好的做法

Dr. Daniel McGowan
分子神经科学博士


Dr. Daniel McGowan曾任 Nature Reviews Neuroscience 副编辑，负责约稿，管理和撰写期刊内容。于2006年加入理文编辑（Edanz Group） 并从2008年起担任学术总监。Dr. McGowan有超过十年的博士后和研究生阶段实验室研究经验，主要致力于神经退化疾病、分子及细胞生物学、蛋白质生物化学、蛋白质组学和基因组学。

精彩回顾

第一期：Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第一讲： “How to write a world class paper”（标题练习）

第二期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第二讲：“摘要和关键词（附PPT和在线修改）”

第三期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第三讲：“cover letter的练习”

第四期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第四讲：“Nature Reviews Neuroscience 前任编辑帮您修改语言问题”

第五期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第五讲：“如何做好研究设计和预先规划工作。 ”

第六期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第六讲：“如何选择合适的目标期刊？”

第七期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第七讲：“如何撰写规范的IMRaD格式？”

第八期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第八讲：“如何完成一个出色的论文图表？”

第九期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第九讲：“让统计学告诉你的结果意味着什么？”

第十期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十讲：“如何回复审稿意见? ”

第十一期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十一讲：“科研伦理和论文发表道德”

第十二期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十二讲：“投稿，最后检查””

编者按：在本帖中，理文编辑学术总监Dr. Daniel McGowan将向大家展示:“如何回复审稿意见 冷静应对拒稿”



科研伦理和论文发表道德：那些好的做法
Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十一讲 — Ethics: following good practice


Most scientists and clinicians are familiar with the concept of ethics as it relates to research, particularly research involving human and animal subjects. Indeed, most studies require ethical approval of the protocols from an institutional committee (following internationally established guidelines) before the research can commence. Additional guidelines relate to publications practice (including the use of medical communications agencies), authorship, reproduction of content, and the validity of the data being presented. Unethical behavior can lead to rejection or even a ban from some journals. But what comprises unethical behavior and how can it be avoided?

The following practices are considered to be unethical:
下列做法将被视为不符合科研伦理和论文道德规范：

•  Improper use of human subjects and animals in research (人和动物研究对象的不当使用)
•  Improper authorship (署名不端)
•  Making multiple submissions of the same manuscript (一稿多投)
•  Submitting a redundant publication (重复发表)
•  Plagiarism (剽窃)
•  Data fabrication and falsification (捏造或篡改数据)

The first of these is probably the one that most people are familiar with. Experiments on human subjects and animals should follow the ethical standards set out in the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 (revised by the World Medical Organisation in Edinburgh in 2000), which led to the establishment of ethics committees. These guidelines ensure the welfare of the animals or human subjects involved in research and require that human subjects provide informed consent for the experiments; that is, they are informed of the purpose and nature of the experiments and consent to being subject to them. All research using human and animal subjects must comply with the Helsinki Declaration or, if not, the researchers must explain the rationale underlying their approach and obtain approval from a local or institutional ethical review body.

Improper authorship(署名不端) is unfortunately a frequently occurring practice that publishers are keen to put an end to. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE; http://www.icmje.org) have established guidelines for qualification for authorship. According to the ICMJE, authorship credit should be based on: 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. All three of these criteria need to be satisfied for a person to qualify for authorship. Lesser contributions should usually be noted in the acknowledgments section of the manuscript. It should be noted that some journals have their own criteria for authorship; these are usually set out in the Guide for Authors.

“Multiple submissions” (一稿多投) refers to the practice of submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal, simultaneously. Although this might save some of your time, if identified, it will result in your paper being rejected and a possible ban from publishing in the journals in question. It simply isn’t worth the risk. Journal editors regularly talk to each other and will exchange information about suspicious papers. It is also quite likely that different journals will appoint the same peer reviewers, leading to discovery of any additional submissions. Therefore, you should not submit your manuscript to a second journal until you receive a final decision from the first journal.

Redundant publications (重复发表) are publications containing findings that have already been published. Journal editors want original content, and this was put into policy in 1969 in the form of the Ingelfinger rule, “the policy of considering a manuscript for publication only if its substance has not been submitted or reported elsewhere”, named after Franz Ingelfinger, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine at that time. The aim of this rule was to protect the journal from publishing material that had already been published and had therefore lost its originality. The rule is reiterated in the ICMJE Guidelines (III.D.2 Redundant Publication), which states that journal editors “do not wish to receive papers on work that has already been reported in large part in a published article or is contained in another paper that has been submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere”. Notable exceptions to this include presentations at scientific meetings and published abstracts (although full disclosure of these should be made at the time of submission) and situations in which researchers have been forced to release data in the course of government deliberations or because of public health concerns.

The final three types of unethical behavior, plagiarism, fabrication and falsification, are listed by the US National Science Foundation as definitive examples of scientific misconduct.

Plagiarism(剽窃) is “the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit, including those obtained through confidential review of others’ research proposals and manuscripts” (Federal Office of Science and Technology Policy, 1999).

Paraphrasing is allowed, but needs to be performed appropriately: speech marks should be used for direct quotes, otherwise alternative phrases should be used. Fabrication refers to the making up of data or results and reporting them, while falsification refers to the manipulation of experiments or the modification of obtained results such that the research is not accurately represented in the literature. All types of misconduct have serious consequences ranging from rejection of a paper to termination of employment and possible legal proceedings.

Finally, not disclosing any potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, could be considered unethical behavior. Authors are usually asked to declare potential conflicts of interest when submitting manuscripts. These include any financial or personal relationships that might inappropriately influence your actions, for example, your employment situation, consultancies, and stock ownership. Conflicts of interest are not necessarily bad, or obstacles to publication, but it is vital that they are declared.

It is important that scientists, engineers and clinicians are aware of what represents ethical and unethical behaviors so that the latter can be avoided. Behaving ethically will give you the confidence of your peers, colleagues and journal editors; behaving unethically could lead to a loss of grant support, unemployment, a ban from journals and possible legal proceedings. Thus, be aware of the boundaries.

请大家注意，尽管理文编辑（Edanz Group）设在中国，Dr. McGowan的母语是英语，因此请各位尽量使用英语交流，这也是一个很好的锻炼机会！

更多精彩内容请下载完整的“Writing for Success”系列培训材料。