BOOK REVIEW • Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don't Know About the Ocean

The subtitle of Naomi Oreskes’ new book, “How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean,” makes her thesis clear from the outset: taking money from someone to fund one’s research probably taints the research with the goals and motives of the funder; because tainted research is not believable research, the published results are perhaps not to be trusted. Oreskes’ point of view is presented in the book’s Introduction, which says, “There is empirical evidence to demonstrate that scientists have been overly optimistic about their ability to maintain their intellectual integrity, particularly in cases where the desiderata of their funders are obvious, as with tobacco or pharmaceutical research.” (page 1)

The Guile and The Guise: Apropos of Comparative Law as We Know It

The field of comparative law prioritizes the ascertainment of universals or commonalities across laws, two chimerical pursuits. In the process, comparative research abides significant distortion of information, not always in good faith, and a correlative loss of intellectual warrant. This article urges acknowledgment of such serious epistemic deficit, of its detrimental impact on comparative law, and of the need to restore intellectual integrity to comparative research in law through a radically different approach to foreignness.

Professional integrity in maternal – fetal innovation and research: an essential component of perinatal medicine

Objectives Clinical innovation and research on maternal–fetal interventions have become an essential for the development of perinatal medicine. In this paper, we present an ethical argument that the professional virtue of integrity should guide perinatal investigators. Methods We present an historical account of the professional virtue of integrity and the key distinction that this account requires between intellectual integrity and moral integrity. Results We identify implications of both intellectual and moral integrity for innovation, research, prospective oversight, the role of equipoise in randomized clinical trials, and organizational leadership to ensure that perinatal innovation and research are conducted with professional integrity. Conclusions Perinatal investigators and those charged with prospective oversight should be guided by the professional virtue of integrity. Leaders in perinatal medicine should create and sustain an organizational culture of professional integrity in fetal centers, where perinatal innovation and research should be conducted.

Reference rot degrades information preservation and induces the loss of intellectual integrity

The age of open access has ushered in a greater desire to cross-cite information from a multitude of sources, some of which may have a determined fate and life cycle. Information insecurity caused by the loss or transposition of information also negatively impacts information integrity by reducing its use and usefulness. Reference rot refers to the phenomenon in which the link to a web resource or journal article URL no longer function, revealing instead a “404 not found” error message. Reference rot can reduce the reliability and usefulness of a manuscript because access to information supporting claims and/or positions within a paper ceases to exist. Academic papers carry a complex mixture of information that is derived from a multitude of sources. Collectively, they ensure a paper’s health and functionality, aspects that fade as access to supporting information becomes truncated, i.e., reference rot, ultimately reducing the usefulness of the academic paper, and making it, and its claims, unreliable. Although it is a cumbersome task, as the curators of academic and scientific information, extant journals and their editors should revisit URLs in the reference lists regularly to update any broken links or URLs, and correct reference lists accordingly. This laborious task should involve close coordination between editors and authors to ensure, as best as possible, the sustained integrity of citations and thus the information backbone of a manuscript. An academic paper with a strong, or fortified, citation base, has greater information integrity, reliability and use for science and society.

Pereira Problem Solving: Business Research Methodology to Explore Open Innovation

Problem solving skills are increasingly important to be able to tackle the complex problems encountered in the business world. Nowadays is increasingly important to achieve sustainable development, focusing not only on economic profit but also on creating social value. It is widely agreed that the principles of scientific management can lead to more effective solutions for complex problems. Problems have to be looked at objectively, with methodology and intellectual integrity and modesty. Several techniques have been developed to help analyze the causes of the problem or formulate solutions. Although these business research techniques are important tools, they are presented as isolated measures. Pereira Problem Solving methodology presented provides guide to address business and management problems. It is an integrative and easy-to-use instrument that helps organizations adopt scientific management practices and will enhance the efficiency of the solutions encountered.

Applicability of the ethics management tools in Romanian academia

The paper shows that the management of ethics in the academic environment is the coordination of all elements related to the moral life of a university. The last decades have insistently imposed on public awareness the importance of taking into account the ethical dimension of the life of universities. Ethical codes, ethics committees, ethical audits, ethical education of staff, techniques to create an institutional culture of a moral nature have all become increasingly widespread. "Institutionalization of ethics" in academia is a new reality for which we must be prepared. The University is an institution whose goals, valid for each of its members, include development and professional affirmation, the evolution of knowledge and research in the conditions of respect for the rule of law and human rights. The University respects the dignity of each of its members and promotes academic integrity on ethical principles. Its members are committed to contributing to the democratic development and prosperity of society. We think that the values and principles that universities promote in particular, and whose actual achievement is sought to ensure, are: academic freedom, personal autonomy, justice and equity, merit, professionalism, honesty and intellectual integrity, transparency, respect and tolerance, responsibility, goodwill and care. We are firmly convinced that if in Romania these principles of academic management are applied in good faith, then the standard of education and respect throughout the academic life will increase.