Ethics of scientific publication: (Mal)-practices and Consequentialism

Abstract

In this paper, we review the ethical issues involved with scientific publication. The possible mal-practices are discussed. Deterrents to those mal-practices are often difficult to apply considering the scale and scope of every issue. On the other hand, as a researcher, one can get a strong moral standpoint with an understanding of moral philosophies. In this paper we link a particular moral philosophy, namely, the Consequentialist philosophy to the scientific practices. From the perspective of Consequentialism, the issues of scientific mal-practice and their deterrents are discussed. We further discuss possible large-scale countermeasures via alternative publication systems and show its relation to Consequentialism.