Journal of Information Ethics最新文献

{"title":"The Return of Wampum Belts: Ethical Issues and the Repatriation of Native American Archival Materials","authors":"A. Runde","doi":"10.3172/JIE.19.1.33","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3172/JIE.19.1.33","url":null,"abstract":"In May 1988 a ceremony was held to celebrate the return of eleven wampum belts to the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy in Grand River, Canada. Another commemoration took place in October 1989 when twelve wampum belts were returned to the Onondaga Nation in New York. Hundreds of people attended these formal ceremonies; tribal chiefs and clan mothers wore ceremonial dress and traditional food was prepared. These ceremonies are but two of many commemorating the repatriation of Native American cultural items to their original creators or owners. They are the results of a long process of Native American activism that emerged in the 1960s and culminated in the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in 1990. Numerous cultural and religious artifacts, works of art and human remains have been returned to their original owners over the past three decades as these communities have moved toward self-governance, and the world at large has come to recognize greater Native American sovereignty. However, the repatriation movement has not been without conflict. Questions about ownership, chain of custody, theft, responsibility, access, and economy have been raised and remain unresolved.These same types of questions apply to the repatriation of Native American materials in archives. The archival community must address problems such as the following: Who owns and cares for the archival materials concerning Native Americans that are now scattered across institutions in this country? Under what circumstances were they collected? Who now determines access policies to these sensitive materials? The Protocols for Native American Archival Materials from 2007 present guidelines regarding some of these issues. Using the return of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy and the Onondaga Nation wampum belts as case studies, this paper will examine some of the ethical issues involved in the repatriation of archival materials and how these issues are treated in the Protocols.Wampum Belts as DocumentsIn everyday language the word wampum means \"money,\" and wampum has indeed served as a historical medium of trade and exchange throughout eastern North America, especially after the arrival of Dutch traders (Richter, 1992). Strictly speaking, wampum refers to beads made from the white and purple parts of shells native to the New England Coast. However, for the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Nations) wampum has far greater cultural significance than mere currency. According to the Onondaga Nation Web site wampum has many uses, including conveying social status. Each clan mother and tribal leader has a wampum string, which is passed from one tribal leader to the next with the office or title. At gatherings, the person holding the wampum string is given special attention; whoever is holding the wampum string is said to be speaking the truth. Wampum strings are also used to document agreements. The Onondaga Web site states, \"The speaker puts the words of th","PeriodicalId":39913,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Ethics","volume":"19 1","pages":"33-44"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69754595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Ethics of Archiving \"Murderabilia\": The Papers of Ted Kaczynski","authors":"N. Devlin","doi":"10.3172/JIE.19.1.126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3172/JIE.19.1.126","url":null,"abstract":"To collect only the pleasant, the democratic, the pleasing records that document our past-the aspects of American life that make us all proud-would be so simple. However, this is not life-nor should it be-and these types of records do not give a complete picture of our culture and our history. These were the thoughts of Julie Herrada, the then Assistant Curator of the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan, when she wrote to Ted Kaczynski in 1997 requesting all of his personal writings and materials that he had in his possession. The papers that Kaczynski eventually sent to Herrada were housed in the Labadie Collection, an archive that had long made it its mission to document the radical and social protest movements in American history, acquiring materials on antiwar, transgender, anarchist, and alternative sexuality movements (none of which would be considered mainstream). Concerns over controversial acquisitions, media interference, third-party privacy rights, and donor requests all played a significant part in Herrada's experience, and add an invaluable dimension as a case study to any further discussion of such issues.The University of Michigan and the Ted Kaczynski Papers, 1997-1999Ted Kaczynski was arrested in 1996 on charges of being the notorious \"Unabomber\" for two decades. During his violent campaign he mailed bombs to individuals involved in fields related to science, genetic engineering, forestry, airlines, and universities. Before his arrest in 1996, three people were killed and twenty-four were injured (Herrada, 2003-2004, p. 35). Kaczynski was captured in 1996, and after a long trial, pleaded guilty on January 22, 1998. He was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years in prison (D. Johnson, 1998). Kaczynski later tried to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing that he was coerced into the plea agreement, but his appeal was denied (Egelko, 2001).So how did Julie Herrada come to acquire the unusual collection of correspondence that Kaczynski had in his jail cell in Colorado? Soon after Kaczynski's arrest, Herrada saw the potential for scholarly research that his radical writings might hold. In 1997 she wrote to Kaczynski's attorney and basically asked for all his writings (Dodge, 2005). At the time she contacted him, Kaczynski was part of a media frenzy. His writings and crimes had garnered the public's continuing, morbid fascination. Herrada pointed out in an interview for Library Journal that her job involved keeping track of events followed in the radical press and collecting new materials accordingly (Library Journal, 2002). Noting the increasing interest of the radical and anarchist press in his writings, she indicated that she could not ignore the opportunity.Four months after writing to Kaczynski's attorney (Judy Clarke), she received word that he was interested and wanted information on the library and its mission. Soon after, Kaczynski sent all the correspondence that he had written and received since his arrest (H","PeriodicalId":39913,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Ethics","volume":"19 1","pages":"126-140"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69754696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Niche Envy: Marketing Discrimination in the Digital Age","authors":"T. Lipinski","doi":"10.5860/choice.44-3955","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.44-3955","url":null,"abstract":"Niche Envy: Marketing Discrimination in the Digital Age Joseph Turow. Cambridge, MA: MIT. 2008. 225 pp. $14.95 (pb).Originally published in hardcover in 2006, this paperback version is no less useful today. The title refers to two sorts of envy, first by competitors who envy the customer base or niche that one company may possess and second by consumers who are envious of real or perceived differential treatment another consumer receives. The author thoroughly documents then generally considers the implications of the sophisticated customization of marketing based upon a particular customer's profile. This allows not only for price discrimination but also for product and service discrimination. The choice of what to offer a customer is made not by the consumer but by the marketer: \"the movement of databases to the heart of marketing communication is beginning to affect the media, advertising, and society\" (p. 1-2).Early chapters recount the development of advertising and marketing, especially in the second half of the twentieth century. Chapter 4 discusses the development of marketing through the Internet and the early battles between the industry and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and reviews the various patterns of Internet marketing customization such as search engine marketing (SEM) or customized messages. Chapter 5 (Rethinking Television) discusses the increased use of product placement as a response to new systems, such as TiVo, that allow consumers to skip commercials, and interactivity, in response to reality television, that encourages viewers to determine narrative through voting. This in turn leads to the consideration of interactivity in the advertising content as opposed to the program leading Turow to predict that \"within 15 years customization of all sorts of commercial messages will be feasible and competitively essential\" (p. 117). Turow predicts that the future of television advertising will parallel practice on the Internet.The future of media programming may also be subject to manipulation in that two viewers, depending on each other's profile, can watch the same television show or made for cable movie but see the protagonist drink a different beverage, drive a different car, wear a different designer label, etc. Chapter 6 (The Customized Store) recounts the well-known attempts by Wal-Mart to track every product, so-called basket-level analysis. Customization occurs in various service products, such as the variable wait-time customers are assigned after moving through (See also, Laura Hildner, Defusing the Threat of RFID: Protecting Consumer Privacy through Technology-Specific Legislation at the State Level, 41 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 133 [2006] and Serena G. Stein, Where Will Customers Find Privacy Protection from RFIDs? …","PeriodicalId":39913,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Ethics","volume":"18 1","pages":"101"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71115066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Execute the Mother Who Killed Her Children","authors":"R. Eisenman","doi":"10.3172/JIE.18.2.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3172/JIE.18.2.8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39913,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Ethics","volume":"18 1","pages":"8-10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69754034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Writing for Eternity","authors":"J. S. Fulda","doi":"10.3172/JIE.18.2.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3172/JIE.18.2.5","url":null,"abstract":"Once, one wrote for an audience, and with mainly that audience in mind. The audience was typically disciplinary, geographical, and temporal. The outlet in which the writing appeared defined the audience. It appeared in a periodical distributed within-or, at most, throughout-a certain disciplinary community, within some, perhaps broad, geographic boundaries, and always at a specific time. In the case of archival, scientific publication, one wrote for the record, i.e., for eternity; still, even in that case, one had a disciplinary and perhaps a geographical audience1 in mind.The scanning and digitization that are proceeding apace and the concomitant dissemination of the results of that digitization on the Worldwide Web have changed much of this. Today's authors know that anything they choose to publish may well be available to everyone, everywhere, for all time, and knowing that may (or may not2) choose to adjust their writing accordingly. In fact, most authors consider such ready availability to readers, scholars, teachers, and practitioners a wonderful boon. But it is so, if it is so, to the extent it is so, only because when they were writing they might have been mindful that the borders of time, space, discipline, and increasingly language3 no longer limit the potential audience for their work.We wish to discuss here briefly the ethical problem that inheres in making any but the most clearly archival sources available through scanning, digitization, and worldwide dissemination, those works written under the former assumptions of the particularities of \"audience\" as understood in \"the olden times.\" That ethical problem is that the reputation of the author may be impacted negatively in a way that could not be foreseen and is, therefore, undeserved. The worldwide, instant availability of texts possible today recalls the science fiction of only a few years back. Were it not so, it would be hard, indeed, for those of us who grew up in the world of bricks and mortar housing volumes of print to believe what is today possible with none of this structure. Indeed, just standing back, it is still hard to believe, even though it is true. This is surely one of those developments about which it can be verily said, \"Who would have thunk it?\"Since it is the author's repute that may undeservedly suffer, the decision must rest with the author and the author alone. And, under existing law, it generally does. In New York Times v. Tasini (530 U.S. 483), the United States Supreme Court found that an electronic version is qualitatively different from a print version, because bound with different contents,4 and therefore a different edition that may not be prepared without the permission of the copyright owner-always, in the first instance, the author, save those works made in the course of employment. The author, and if he is deceased, those to whom his interests and estate have lawfully passed, should and must be, and under current law generally is, the arbiter of w","PeriodicalId":39913,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Ethics","volume":"18 1","pages":"5-7"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69753983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ethics in the IT Classroom: Why and How?","authors":"D. Larson, K. Miller","doi":"10.3172/JIE.18.2.38","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3172/JIE.18.2.38","url":null,"abstract":"1. IntroductionWithin this paper the authors will explain the importance of including IT ethics within the Management Information Systems (MIS) and Computer Science (CS) curricula. It is our contention that in today's environment, students of MIS or CS should understand the importance of acknowledging and dealing with ethical issues is in their work. No longer can this subject be ignored since ethical issues are as critical to the success of IT projects as are design and technical issues. Consequently IT professionals (whom our students hope to become) must know how to view what they are doing or being asked to do from an ethical perspective. In what follows we give our definition of IT ethics, discuss the importance of ethics to organizations and to the IT curriculum, and how ethics could be incorporated within the curriculum, and finally provide some ethics resources educators can use as they start to deal with ethics in their curricula.2. Defining IT EthicsAccording to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2006), \"ethics\" can be defined as follows:The field of ethics, also called moral philosophy, involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. Philosophers today usually divide ethical theories into three general subject areas: metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Metaethics investigates where our ethical principles come from, and what they mean. ... Normative ethics takes on a more practical task, which is to arrive at moral standards that regulate right and wrong conduct. ... Finally, applied ethics involves examining specific controversial issues. ...In addition to this three-part definition of what ethics is, it is useful to stress what ethics is not. The study of ethics need not be connected to religion, although individuals may find their inspiration to be ethical from a religious tradition, and many religions share moral views that are compatible with many ethical traditions (Wikipedia, 2007). \"Ethical\" is not the same as \"legal,\" although the study and development of laws is often intertwined with the study and development of ethics (LegalEthics.com, 2006).IT ethics is an applied study of how ethics and Information Technology interact. It is our contention that the study of ethics is of growing importance to IT education. We expect that applied IT ethics will be central to this study, although metaethics is useful as a foundation for the applied ethics. We also expect that another significant theme will be normative ethics, especially as it is reflected in codes for IT professionals.3. Ethics and OrganizationsThe importance of ethics to organizations and management has escalated in the last few years and is now seen as critical. Within this section we will discuss why ethics is important in organizations, who is responsible for an ethical climate in an organization, and how this climate can be encouraged.3.1 Ethics-Importance to OrganizationsThere is a fear that when organizatio","PeriodicalId":39913,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Ethics","volume":"18 1","pages":"38-49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69753909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Ethics of Piracy in the Music Industry","authors":"S. Ponelis, J. Britz","doi":"10.3172/JIE.18.2.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3172/JIE.18.2.14","url":null,"abstract":"Piracy in the music industry is now a growing global phenomenon, a fact repeatedly bemoaned by the major record companies. Piracy has always been a problem but the rise of new information and communication technologies (ICT) have made it a straightforward and relatively uncomplicated exercise to commit. Piracy through file sharing and illegal downloads alone may have cut album sales by as much as a quarter in recent years (Edgecliffe-Johnson, 2005) with as many as 40 illegal downloads for every legal one (Chaffin and Van Duyn, 2006:1). In response the music industry has campaigned for stricter intellectual property rights (IPR) laws enforcing their rights over music it records, produces and distributes. But the question remains: what does piracy by consumers signal to the music industry and society at large (if anything)?In order to answer this question this paper will be structured in the following manner: first, a broad introduction to the problem will be offered, namely, how music companies have skewed the balance between the creators and consumers of music with the resulting circumvention of financial compensation by means of piracy that is enabled by ever-improving ICTs. Second, piracy and the causes thereof as found in literature are discussed. Third, ethics, in particular normative ethics, is elaborated upon. Last, against this background the ethics (or lack thereof ) of piracy is discussed and possible answers to the question are given. Note that this paper does not attempt to address piracy on a commercial scale, but rather focuses on the individual who either perpetrates piracy by supporting counterfeits or bootlegs and/or engages in digital piracy. Neither is the issue addressed for geographic locations where IPR is not inherent in the cultural and legal tradition although the levels of music piracy are not insignificant.Music, the Music Industry, and Intellectual Property RightsMusic predates the written word with different cultures developing different styles of music which vary widely not only between cultures but also within a particular culture over time. The purpose for which music is composed and performed today ranges from religious or ceremonial to entertainment where it is sold as a product in the marketplace.The music industry creates, performs, promotes, and preserves music (note that the term does not encompass traditional music or the system of courtly patronage). Music is created by musicians and two main categories can be distinguished: amateur and professional. Amateur musicians compose and perform music for their own personal pleasure and do not attempt to derive income from music; as such, they are not part of the \"formal\" music industry until they become professional. Professional musicians attempt to derive income from their efforts in order to support the creation of further music; they can be employed by institutions (such as symphony orchestras, music schools, etc.), perform freelance work, or transform their wo","PeriodicalId":39913,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Ethics","volume":"18 1","pages":"14-26"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69753841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Self-Corruption at the Top","authors":"James F. Welles","doi":"10.3172/JIE.18.1.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3172/JIE.18.1.10","url":null,"abstract":"We live in an unethical society, but perhaps all societies are unethical. It may be a normal condition for human organizations that rules, like phonograph records, are made to be broken. There is no need here to litanize the obvious unethical conduct that surrounds us daily. We have survived a philandering President, the Blue Wall of silence of the police (who will not police themselves), insider traders on Wall Street, and an unconscionable, invasive, undeclared war with a non-threatening country at peace with us half a world away. The list is endless and the entries all too familiar, but the point here is that along with the moral backsliders and others at the bottom grabbing for more than they earn or deserve, our leaders commonly indulge in unethical conduct at the top.In its most general form, unethical conduct by our leaders is simply another form of power politics. It is a way for those in the establishment to stay established. It is not enough that they can make the rules (and laws) to suit themselves and then selectively enforce them to help themselves: For some reason, they feel free if not compelled to break the rules as well. Perhaps this is all as obvious as unethical conduct is itself, but to those super-egoists who believe in ideals, there is a need to address the most serious problem confronting our civilization. Surprisingly, it is not a problem of politics-nor of economics, social values, ecology, or overpopulation. It is a problem of ethics (or lack thereof). It is the question of whether or not we are going to abide by our own standards of conduct. And, more to the point, are our leaders going to do so?This is a more perplexing problem for those of us in the scientific community because we are the educated elite of society. Only the medical profession could possibly rival us in formal education, and we might justly claim physicians to be our own. However, for all our formal training, something is obviously missing. Somewhere along the way, some of us got lost in a maze of egoism and strayed from what we are supposed to be doing. Worse yet, so have some of our leaders.1Like all academicians, scientists are supposed to be searching for the truth. All the codification of methodology in science is directed toward that end, but without the guiding ethic of an innocent commitment to truth, all the intellectual training in the world is wasted if not perverted by those committed to promoting their own images. It may be that those with Machiavellian personalities simply have risen to the posts of authority in science as they have in most other fields. They are the people who crave power and love to wield it, so the others, who are devoted to their ideals, let the power mongers have their sway, but beyond that, a number of factors built into the minds of scientists and the fabric of science contribute to its corruption.We can start by recognizing the occasional failure of conscience of individual scientists themselves and then deal with","PeriodicalId":39913,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Ethics","volume":"18 1","pages":"10-15"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69754097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Additional Suggestions for Management to Respond to Ethical Issues Raised by Technological Change","authors":"William P. Cordeiro","doi":"10.3172/JIE.18.1.54","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3172/JIE.18.1.54","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionThe accelerating rate and complexity of technological developments create a variety of issues and challenges for managers, including ethical issues (Velasquez, 1992; Beauchamp and Bowie, 1993; Dean, 1993; Quan, 2003). Managers have several responsibilities related to technological developments. They must foster and incorporate technological change into their organizations' daily operations, while simultaneously staying alert to the potential effects of technological change on their workers, their customers, and society. The pace of technological change creates unique and ever-increasing burdens on managers' decision-making. This paper discusses six technology-related ethical issues and suggests methods to increase managers' effectiveness in confronting them. The paper updates an earlier work (Cordeiro, 1 997) by addressing several emerging issues related to personal privacy.Ethical Issues and TechnologyWork, especially work performed by employees of organizations, often raises ethical issues. Discussions of ethical issues usually focus on utilitarian analyses of organizational assets, both tangible and intangible (e.g., image and reputation):* The organization's right to secure and protect its assets,* The employee's duty to preserve, protect and enhance the value of the organization's assets,* The organization's right to use its assets for its benefit.Early ethical principles acknowledge powerful rights of organizations, often ignoring employees' rights. Ethical analysis applies cost/benefit analysis, with a goal of increased economic efficiency (Bentham, 1 789; Samuelson, 1947; Sidgwick, 1962). In the last 40 years, organizations' property rights have been questioned, attacked, and qualified. The unadulterated applications of utilitarian cost/benefit analyses have been severely criticized (Glover, 1977; MacIntyre, 1977). Especially in the USA, society now expects organizations to recognize the rights of individuals and of outside organizations and many stakeholders (Rawls, 1971; Tuck, 1979; Stoijar, 1984). Society expects organizations to employ their assets in socially responsible ways by adhering to ethical principles concerning their competitors, suppliers, customers, employees, and general society (French, 1979; Evan and Freeman, 1993).The development of technology raises an array of ethical issues related to work. Many of these are old, surfacing under new guises (Argandona, 2003; Wilder and Soat, 2001). Technology has not changed the issues, but technol- ogy may make the issues' analysis and application more complex. Consultant David Gebler notes that technology raises \"issues that may have existed before, but not in such stark reality\" (Wilder and Soat, 2001). Some examples of old ethical problems made more complex by modern technology are the sale of \"safe\" consumer products, the psychological effects of advertising, the use of security systems to protect property, and the protection of the natural environment.In other areas","PeriodicalId":39913,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Ethics","volume":"18 1","pages":"54-66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69753779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Some Problems Related to Corrections of Error in the Scholarly Literature","authors":"G. Moran","doi":"10.3172/JIE.18.1.21","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3172/JIE.18.1.21","url":null,"abstract":"The topic of correction of scholarly error in academia is a vast and complicated one. This short article is an introductory discussion, or brief summary, for a more elaborate study that is underway.According to the rhetoric of the academic establishment, there is really no serious problem involving correction of scholarly error. The often repeated phrase \"Science is self-correcting\" implies that there is no problem for science at all, since there is an automatic process that assures-or at least strives for- quality control. With peer review in place, errors are detected by reviewers/referees, and by editors, and are therefore not published. If by chance some errors happen to slip through the peer review quality control safety net, specialists in the specific academic discipline will spot the errors and corrections will be made.But despite the alleged self-correcting process of science, and the quality control afforded by peer review, much erroneous material is published in the scholarly literature, and some errors persist for long periods of time. For instance, in the case of childbirth fever, Semmelweiss is often given credit as the scholar who discovered the cause and prevention, and who therefore corrected the specific serious medical error that was causing so much harm. Yet, other medical researchers before Semmelweiss including Charles White, Oliver Wendell Holmes (relative of the famous jurist), and Alexander Gordon, came to very similar conclusions. In this case, de Grazia (1984) observes that \"It took about a century from White's obsessive insistence on cleanliness in Manchester's lying-in ward to consensus about a matter that should have been simple enough to grasp\" (p. 29).A very interesting study relating to correction of error is Serge Lang's 1981 book, The File, which is subtitled Case Study in Correction. Lang detected defects and errors in a specific sociological survey of the academic profession. What began as an exchange between Lang and one of the authors evolved into a controversy-and a book of about 700 pages-that \"involved a good part of the education network\" (p. 1). Had corrections been made at the beginning, this book would not have been written at all. In fact, according to Lang, the book resulted from the \"combination of an attempted correction with the refusal to make the correction...\" (p. 1). He also notes: \"I am bothered by the ... obstructions which prevent correct information from being disseminated. These obstructions come about in many ways-personal, institutional, through selfimposed inhibitions, through external inhibitions, through outright dishonesty, through incompetence-the list is a long one\" (p. 2).Such obstructions to correction of an error can be grouped into several categories: 1) lack of volition or lack of expertise, on the part of specialists, to make corrections; 2) paradigm dependence, paradigm protection; 3) conflict of interest; 4) advocacy research and ideology; 5) disdain, on the part of estab","PeriodicalId":39913,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Ethics","volume":"18 1","pages":"21-24"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69754189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}