Loyalty and responsibilities to an employer

Each researcher is a part of a social context in which consideration for and cooperation with an employer and co-workers are important. The fundamental rule in working life is that the employee is expected to be loyal concerning the employer's goal and working method as long as it does not conflict with law and good practice. For the researcher, however, yet another loyalty is required: that to science's norms and ideals. Some often-named cornerstones of researchers' ethics, regardless of area, are those mentioned in Robert Merton's CUDOS norms (1942), which address (among other things) universalism, altruism and organized scepticism as characteristics of good research. On the other hand, it is naturally a great advantage if a scientific result is of benefit to society at large.

Whistleblowing

As this website so clearly shows, science has highly placed ethical ideals. It thus often happens that researchers sound an alarm when an employer or co-worker conducts him/herself in an unethical way. The reporting researcher is then called a whistleblower. The basis for the right to sound an alarm is the citizen's freedom of speech.

In the US, the Office of Research Integrity has published a "Sample Policy for Responding to Allegations of Scientific Misconduct" and "Guidelines for Institutions and Whistleblowers". Codes of various professions or scientific fields often have a section addressing whistleblowing. For example, the IEEE (an organization for engineers) has the "Guidelines for Engineers Dissenting on Ethical Grounds". For more information, see professional codes.

Conflicts of interest

The majority of rules collected on this website pertain primarily to public research work. When a researcher is instead employed by a private and commercial company, an ethical dilemma can arise between, for example, the demands for openness and cooperation that the research community normally advocates and the employer's demand for loyalty to the company's interests. It is also of great importance that trust in researchers' work, objectivity and integrity is maintained. Commercial interests or liaisons that can affect a researcher's objectivity are to be accounted for openly. For more information, see the page on ethics in publication.

How should companies behave? For multinational companies, OECD has formulated the "Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises", in which questions regarding topics such as regard for the environment, work relationships, openness, unimpeachibility and economic development are addressed.

One cause of conflict between researchers and employers/clients is when the researcher intends to move his/her activity to another site. Those who have paid for the research can assert that they have a right to the result or raw data that the researcher has at his/her disposal. For more information, see the page on ownership of research material and results.

Last updated: 2010-01-01