فصلنامه راهبرد فرهنگ
پیاپی 8-9 (بهار 1389)

Scientific refereeing plays a strategic role in research and educational activities. On the basis of diversity of such activities, scientific refereeing becomes horizontally diverse. In vertical diversity, refereeing is classified into first and second rates. Paying due attention to vertical diversity plays a very important part in the ethical concerns of referees. On the one hand, scientific refereeing is related to production of knowledge and promotion of universities (national and organizational interests) in the country, and on the other it is related to the rights of the faculty members. Scientific refereeing requires two kinds of scales: correct refereeing (correspondant to reality); and ethical refereeing (free from encroachment upon the rights of the individuals and national and organizational interests). In the first place, in the present paper scientific refereeing and its different kinds have been defined and then the principles of correct refereeing and ethical refereeing are discussed. In the both cases, the study follows an analytical-logical method.

Refrainment of some scholars from quoting their contemporaries in their writings is among serious impediments of the field of research. Due to somereasons, they refrain from quoting their contemporary scholars. The main reasons for refraining from quoting the contemporaries are: 1. Unawareness; 2. Mistrust; 3. Competition; 4. Hatred; 5. Friendly considerations; and 6. Self-aggrandizement. Due to whatever reason that it may take place, besides being ethically wrong, it will lead to scientific poverty and negative judgment of others in the long run, with consequences that are not in the interest of anybody including those who commit such acts. Some of the consequences of such acts are: 1. Beginning from square one, 2. Generalization; 3. Lack of mutual reference; 4. General poverty in the field of references; 5. Negative judgment of other scientific communities; and 6. Defamation of those who use such methods. Hence it is obligatory on the part of researchers to set aside their personal considerations and quote their contemporaries who have produced serious works. This procedure, either on the basis of utilitarian criteria or ethical values, is in the interest of researchers and the scientific community.

The expanse of research in academic circles and organizations and vulnerabilityof research morality underlines the need for morality in research. The main focus of the present paper is to study the epistemic dimensions of a discipline that is capable of analyzing ethical issues of research within a specific theoretical framework and methodology. The main hypothesis of the present paper is: it is possible to achieve ethics in research as a discipline with definite epistemic dimensions. The methodology to test the hypothesis is logical analysis on the basis of the model of scientology which has been prevalent among the Muslim scholars over the recent centuries, that is, the model of Principlists’ scientology. On the basis of this model, ethics in research goes beyond ethical recommendations and through its definite objectives, resources, approaches and methodology provides an opportunity for proper understanding and effective solution of ethical issues. Thus, encountering ethical problems through individual trial and error and taking temporary stances towards such problems would be replaced with a methodological and scientific analysis. The establishment of such a discipline can promote preventive programs and cure of ethical ailments in research and can also expand programs for promotion of ethics among researchers and research institutes.

Privacy is among significant general issues of ethics which has created lots of challenges in the field of professional ethics, particularly in the field of ethics in research. Scientific developments have exposed human beings and human subjects to different investigations and tests, while due to technical advancements, access, storage and retrieval of a great volume of data has become possible. Among the most important researches related to human subject one may mention medical clinical studies, genetic, psychological, social and modern theological studies and applied ethical investigations. The present article is an attempt to study the concept of privacy within the studies related to human subject and the problem of privacy in the process of research. Islamic teachings. Under normal circumstances, the people’s right to protection of their privacy should not contradict research, for basically it is understood that the data or the sample taken from the people is not used against them. But when these data or samples are used in the studies which are out of control of the people, it may infringe upon their privacy which can be compensated through getting the conscious consent of the concerned person or through protective policies of the research institute. However, the most important factor in protection of privacy is the piety and virtue of the researcher.

Attempts have been made in the present paper to explain ethical charter of research in two parts. The first part deals with the ethical merits of research with regard to three categories, i.e., research subject, researcher and the organization in charge of research. The second part of the paper deals with pathology of research. This part focuses on the ethical ‘ought not to’s of researcher and the related organization. A reflection on the behavioral impediments in research would demonstrate the imperative of commitment to ethical values and ‘ought to’s. On the basis of the said arguments the present paper is an attempt to offer a plan for a charter of ethics in research on the basis of Islamic values.

The objective of the present paper is to comparatively study the existence philosophers’ ideas about the nature of ethics and man’s ethical life as well as to infer ethical fundamentals and related principles of teacher-student relationships. The research methodology applied in the present paper is comparative analysis (a qualitative research approach) and practical syllogism (a philosophical research method). According to the findings of this research, the existence thinkers lay emphasis on common points with regard to man’s existence and his ethical life. On this basis, three fundamentals and six principles are proposed for ethical relationships between teacher and student: the fundamental of validity of individuality and unique characteristics of human being and the principles of respect to individuality and choosing student-teacher relations instead of teacher-student relations; the fundamental of validity of originality and the principles of choosing me-you relations instead of me-that relations with student by the teacher, establishment of existence relations with student by the teacher and preparing the grounds by the teacher for experiencing border situations by the students; and finally, the fundamental of validity of emotional and exiting aspects of life on the side of rational aspect and the principle of providing information about humane being and preparing the grounds for all-out participation of student in the real life. Lastly, referring the shortcomings of the ideas of these philosophers, it is concluded that on the side of following ethical fundamentals and principles in relations between teacher and student in the higher education system of our country, due attention should be paid to the shortcomings as well.

The main objective of the present paper is to study the place of engineering ethics in engineering professional competencies. The engineering professional competencies model was first obtained by qualitative research through Delphi Method with the participation of 50 experts, which was confirmed by experts of this field through an opinion poll. Finally this model was analyzed through a survey of the sample consisting of accessible graduates of the Sharif University. Thus the final model was obtained (consisting of 4 major competencies, 7 main competencies and 28 secondary competencies). The present research in the first place considered 8 main engineering professional competencies. The first and second competencies of this list were: having motivation and being active as well as being ethical and accountable. Quantitative research indicated that segregation of the above mentioned two professional competencies did not serve the desirable model. Hence the said two competencies were integrated and a new professional competency called “having exalted motivation” was formed and the eight professional competencies were reduced to seven. The findings of the present paper indicate that the place of having “exalted motivation” as a professional competency is not at par with other competencies, rather it is the core and engine of other 6 professional competencies. Meanwhile, exalted motivation for professional activity of an engineer should not be independent of his other motivations in his life, rather a desirable engineer with regard to motivation is the one who has chosen a single mission in his entire individual and social life and the very single mission provides the exalted motivation of that role in different roles in life.

The main objective of the present paper is to study the condition of ethical functions of university during the domination of advanced capitalism. The term advanced capitalism is used to describe economic condition of Western societies during the recent decades. The main hypothesis of the present paper is that capitalism, particularly during the past few decades, has left an adverse impact on the ethical functions of university. By ethical function we mean sublimation of human being as a spiritual being and also promotion of social justice. The ethical functions of university have been analyzed from six perspectives, i.e., idealism, liberalism, Marxism, feminism and racial, existentialism, and postmodernism and finally a synthetic approach has been proposed. The findings of the present paper show that during era of advanced capitalism there has been an ethical decline of university in different respects. The findings of the present paper also indicate that the ethical decline of university in the era of advanced capitalism has its roots in the following factors: expansion of class relations and creation of inequality; application of knowledge as an instrument for the domination of interest groups; expansion of gender and racial inequality; and finally, ignorance of the sublime and spiritual aspects of human being and considering him as a thing or a professional workforce and ultimately alienation.

The main objective of the present paper is to study and compare the current and desirable condition of professional ethical standards in the university education and also to offer some suggestions for the improvement of the standards of institutes of higher education. Descriptive-survey method and combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques have been used for the present study. The statistical population included the students and teachers of the University of Kurdestan and the required sample was obtained through stratified proportional to size sampling method. Questionnaire and semi-structured interview as well as focused groups were used for the collection of the data. For the analysis of the data the following techniques were applied: descriptive statistics, t-test of independent groups, t-test of dependent groups and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings of the research indicate that in the viewpoints of the teachers and students, the existing professional ethical condition in the field of educational activities is below average. At the same time the respondents opined that it was necessary to pay attention to such standards in the university education. The comparison of the viewpoints of the teachers and students and consideration of other demographic features of the sample in the secondary analysis demonstrated a sort of convergence in their viewpoints with regard to the current condition and desirable condition of these standards.

This research examines the status of ethics of teaching among faculty members in Tehran’s state universities from the perspectives of postgraduate students. In examining this issue, the following nine factors were considered: course content effectiveness, pedagogical effectiveness, dealing with sensitive topics, paying attention to students’ thought development, avoiding personal relations with students, respect for institution, respect for colleagues, confidentiality, and fair assessment of students academic progress. This research was a descriptive survey for which the data were collected by questionnaire. One sample independent t-test and confirmatory factor analysis were used to analyze the data. Research population included 44514 postgraduate students including 24454 males and 20060 females in Tehran’s public universities, including Sharif Technical University, Tarbiat Mo’alem University and Alame Tabatabaie University. The sampling model was cluster sampling through randomly selection. The sample included 381 individuals from 27 colleges. A total of 355 questionnaires were returned and analyzed. Based on research findings, faculty members in Tehran state universities pay attention to ethics of teaching and this issue is important to them.