Ethics in Science and Technology
Year:2010 | Volume:4 | Issue:3-4|Papers Count:14

Background: Plagiarism, and different types of research misconducts, are define and described, after made transparent its importance as scientific misconduct which endangers the content of science, and the place of scientists in society.Methods: Documentation and analytic; with reference to well-known authoritative sources to define different types of plagiarism, then using an explanatory approach from sociology of science to locate plagiarism sociologically.Conclusion: Plagiarism and denouncing it, both, are old-even in Persian culture. To define them, to publicize them, and to educate the members of the Scientific Community is necessary but not enough. Social roots of plagiarism and the social framework that allows it or makes it possible, also, should be studied and changed.

Background: The modern world has been successful in terms of scientific developments as well as providing social welfare for its people. However, it has failed to promote ethics among human beings. Taking into account the ethical and spiritual gaps in the contemporary world and humans' permanent preoccupation with the philosophy of life, spirituality discourse is one of most important issues that has been taken into account in order to link the traditional world values and modern ones. Organizations as one of the most prevalent bodies in today's societies are one of the most dominant areas where spiritual-based approaches are developing.Method: In this library-based research, the necessity of paying attention into spirituality in organizations and workplaces is demonstrated. In this regard, the dimensions, benefits, and development of work spirituality will be discussed.Conclusion: With regard to the omnipresence of organizations in societies and different consequences of their operation, the emergence of work spirituality in organizations seems inevitable.Due to the dominance of rational and mechanistic paradigms, workplaces are in dire need of the promotion of spirituality. Different researches demonstrate that organizations are highly welcomed to this new paradigm and attempt to develop it in their workplaces. The present article emphasizes the necessity of conducting empirical studies in this area and implementing their results in Iran.

Background: This paper discusses the conventional concept of economic rationality and talks about its criticisms raised and try to modify this concept with respect to them so that it becomes more corresponding to economic human life.Methods: In this paper, the library research method has been used to reflect some ideas about the necessity of changing the concept of economic rationality and modifying it from some famous economists. The new concept of economic rationality called extended rationality has been derived.Results: Comparative analysis of different effects of the two concepts show that the entrance of ethics in economic discussions- such as Life- Cycle Hypothesis and efficiency of pollution tax- may affect them and suggests the new solutions or make considerable quantitative or qualitative changes to them.Conclusion: It may be possible to objectify the extended rationality presumption by revising public culture and correcting it in such a way that ethical values and norm are institutionalized in society.

Background: During recent years there was a lot of emphasis on social roles and responsibilities of knowledge-based organizations. Science and technology parks are knowledge based organizations which are developed to commercialize knowledge and retrench the gap between universities and society. The aim of this article is to review social responsibilities in the process of developing science and technology parks.Methods: Strategic planning (organizational mission statements and visions) of 16 active science parks worldwide were studied using content analysis method.Results: Results show that the model of developing science and technology parks is a model of domination of capitalism language which forces science to serve capital interest. Finally, by taking an ethical approach, the roles of technology policymakers in designing visions for developing science and technology parks considering public interests will be pointed out.Conclusion: Findings criticize the assumption of neutrality of science and technology and show that there was low attention to social responsibilities in comparing with the aim of commercialization of knowledge.

Introduction: During thousands years, the oriented society, according to what is available of ancient Iranian texts, by legislating special rules, clergymen attempted to protect the rights of interaction between physicians and their clients.In order to receive liecence, the physicians needed to take difficult exams, and inreturn for their work, the society pay approved doctor, s fee.Basically this study is dedicated to examine the extant medical part of the third volume of the Dinkard which had not been dealed with so far.Metodology: By using the method of citation and collecting the evidence, this study classified and analysed the findings.Conclusion: According to the extant Zoroastarian text in the old Iranian society there were precise rules regarding the interaction between a physician and his client violation of which was considered crime. This rule which originally rose from the East and were inherited from the Iranian and ancestors, were developed more perfectly by the Iranian civilization and were transferred to Greece through wars and other communications and became known in their names.The extant writings, however, would prove that concerning the medical ethics, the Iranian people were prior to Greek.

Background: Justice as a prominent sight of ethical values has inevitable effects on attitudes and perceptions in various domains. Therefore in this research, the role of justice on teacher’s attitudes toward organization and satisfaction with complaint handling was investigated.Methods: Research method was structural equation modeling and statistical population were male and female teachers who were employed in high schools in Esfahan city. From the above statistical population, 246 teachers from schools of different regions were selected using convenience sampling method to respond the research questionnaires. Research instruments included questions: interpersonal justice with 4 items, informational justice with 5 items, procedural justice with 7 items, distributive justice with 4 items, satisfaction with complaint handling with 3 items and attitudes toward organization with 10 items. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling and mediated regression analysis.Results: The results of mediation regression analysis showed that satisfaction with complaint handling and procedural justice, played a replaceable mediation variable role for each other in relation with attitude toward organization. Structural equation modeling also revealed that there are not direct relations between interpersonal and informational justice with satisfaction with complaint handling and attitude toward organization, but procedural justice has indirect effect on attitude toward organization through satisfaction with complaint handling. Finally distributive justice has direct effect on attitude toward organization.Conclusion: The results of this research offer a specific model for the role of justice dimensions on satisfaction with complaint handling and attitude toward organization. In summery, distributive justice has direct role on attitude toward organizations, but procedural justice has indirect role on attitude toward organization through satisfaction with complaint handling.

Background: Considiring the increasing complexity of organizations and the rate of unethical, illegal and irresponsible acts in business, the managers and experts have focused on the ethics of work and management; in this regard, many organizations have defined ethical codes and have created official and educational systems. The purpose of this study was to investigate on organizations assessment in connection with developing and implementing ethical charter. In this study, ethics in place of excellence, the importance of Ethical Charter as a strategy in implementing moral principles in the organization and implementation of paid and its role in the study of performance development have been evaluated. Finally, the results of the study sample, some reasons for unsuccessful Ethical Charters are discussed.Methods: This study is practical and descriptive. In this study, 42 companies under Ministry of Communication and Information Technology have been studied for investigation of their situation in compiling and operating Ethical Charter.Results: Among the companies included, only 47% of companies had Ethical Charter. Among those, 85% were successful in developing the charter. Regarding the ethical Charter implantation, 80% of the successful companies in developing the plan could achieve the training and operating score of ethical Charter.Conclusion: The results showed that inspite of the emphasis on ethics in organizations, there have not been much investment in this field. On the other hand, only having the ethical charter is not sufficient, and it's implementation is more necessary.

Background: Ethics has an important role in accounting and this discipline has "Codes of Ethics" such as other disciplines. On the other hand, since many areas of accounting including earnings management requires ethical judgments, the purpose of this study is to examine the role of ethical judgments in earnings management.Methods: The questionnaire was used for gathering the data, and it was distributed among 200 undergraduate accounting students. This questionnaire consisted of six hypothetical scenarios involving specific intent and treatment of management earnings in any of them. Earnings management intent represents an independent variable with two treatment levels opportunism (individual intent) and efficient firm contracting (company intent). The manner of earnings manipulation represents the second independent variable with three treatment levels accounting method change, accounting estimate change, and operating change. To test the hypothesis, Two Way ANOVA and paired t-student test was used.Results: According to the founded results, the intent of management earnings (P -Value=0, F= 32.676) and the treatment of management earnings (P -Value=0, F=32.676), at 99% confidence level, have significant influence on ethical judgment. Hence, we find support for both propositions.Conclusion: This study found that the intent of the earnings management matters. That is, subjects find that managers engaging in earnings management that was deemed opportunistic or selfish were considered more unethical (or less ethical) than earnings management behavior aimed at increasing firm contracting efficiency. Additionally, the study found that the method of the manipulation was also important. Accounting estimate manipulations was considered the least ethical followed by economic operating decisions. Changes in accounting method were considered the least unethical.

Background: It has been intended in this research that an image of moral instruction to be presented on the basis of the content analysis of the textbooks of the first grade junior high schools.To accomplish this goal, the theoretical framework was first prepared. Two methods of presentation (direct and indirect), two procedures of discourse (individual and group), and four kinds of moral message (regarding one’s relation with God, with oneself, with society and with the universe) were differentiated in this theoretical framework.Method: All the first grade textbooks of junior high schools in the academic year 2007-2008, excluding mathematics and English language, were analyzed using the list of data collection, and their moral concepts and doctrines were identified and classified. To make sure of the researchers’ understanding, the teachers of first grade junior high schools were asked to compare the extracted data with the textbooks to prove the accuracy of research analysis.Results: The results of the research showed that the moral concepts regarding oneself, God, other people, and the universe have respectively the most frequent in the textbooks. Also, the procedure of discourse of moral messages is in more cases as group-oriented than individual-centered.Meanwhile, direct methods are more used to present moral doctrines than indirect methods. The presentation method of moral doctrines has been direct as regards God and oneself, and indirect regarding society and the universe.Conclusion: More attention would be better to be paid to such moral concepts as veracity, trustworthiness, avoidance of backbiting, envy and ostentation. Also, it is suggested that, in addition to theoretical instruction of moral concepts, practical instruction of morality to be considered through more application of active methods.

Background: Although heralding bright horizons to researchers involved in a variety of scientific fields, theoretical ethics does not represent a reliable model to measure the level of deontological compliance. The model, presented in this study, examines research activities and the use of nanotechnology. It behaves like an auditing system in terms of respecting ethical criteria as it is equipped with tools for assessment, feedback and control.Methods: To reach a satisfying validity, this study is not limited to case studies and it encompasses also a survey about the views of nanotechnologists regarding the scientific and executive capability of the framework in question in different stages of the procedure. The population comprises a total of 1, 957 researchers affiliated with the State Nano Committee. A sample of 174 individuals have been picked and emailed the questionnaire.Results: The survey concluded that the presented model enjoys a high level of validity for evaluation of nanotechnological risks.Conclusion: According to the survey carried out, it can concluded that the model presented in this survey is highly efficient and capable of largely assisting relevant officials and bodies in nano-standardization. The unique and outstanding features highlighted in this research include dynamism, comprehensiveness, flexibility, scientific inclusivity and usability.

Growth of financial markets requires using the new financial tools. In Designing financial instruments, justice and efficiency should be seen together. In This article we try to extract "ethical fundamentals" (prohibitions) and "ethical principles" (operating Models), and finally the necessary standards for the design of new financial products as "a model of ethics in Islamic financial engineering"- based on efficiency and justice - to be developed.