The Principles and Ethics of Including Children with Disability in Child Research

This paper provides a set of principles and ethics, developed in collaboration between Pacific‐ and Australian‐based researchers, to guide research practice in a project enabling the self‐reporting of children with disability in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea (PNG). The paper presents both a summary of academic literature relating to these principles and ethics, as well as their succinct ‘translation’ into a set of action statements for researchers working with children with disability. The paper offers a base for further development by others to guide research practice and foster the autonomous participation of children with disability in developing countries.     

The Ethical Foundations of Risk Analysis

In the field of risk analysis, the normative value systems underlying accepted methodology are rarely explicitly discussed. This perspective provides a critique of the various ethical frameworks that can be used in risk assessments and risk management decisions. The goal is to acknowledge philosophical weaknesses that should be considered and communicated in order to improve the public acceptance of the work of risk analysts.     

The significance of meaning. Why IPBES needs the social sciences and humanities

The term “biodiversity” is often used to describe phenomena of nature, which can be studied without a reference to the socially constructed, evaluative, or indeed normative contexts. In our paper, we challenge this conception by focusing particularly on methodological aspects of biodiversity research. We thereby engage with the idea of interdisciplinary biodiversity research as a scientific approach directed at the recognition and management of contemporary society in its ecological embedding. By doing this, we explore how research on and assessments of biodiversity can be enhanced if meaning, aspiration, desires, and related aspects of agency are methodically taken into account. In six sections, we substantiate our claim that the discourse on biodiversity (including the IPBES (Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) debate) is incomplete without contributions from the social sciences and humanities. In the introduction, a brief overview of biodiversity’s conceptual history is provided showing that “biodiversity” is a lexical invention intended to create a strong political momentum. However, that does not impede its usability as a research concept. Section 2 examines the origins of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by way of sociological discourse analysis. Subsequently, it proposes a matrix as a means to structure the ambiguities and tensions inherent in the CBD. The matrix reemphasizes our main thesis regarding the need to bring social and ethical expertise to the biodiversity discourse. In Section 3, we offer a brief sketch of the different methods of the natural and social sciences as well as ethics. This lays the groundwork for our Section 4, which explains and illustrates what social sciences and ethics can contribute to biodiversity research. Section 5 turns from research to politics and argues that biodiversity governance necessitates deliberative discourses in which participation of lay people plays an important role. Section 6 provides our conclusions.     

Ethical uneasiness and the need for open-ended reflexivity: the case of research into older people with a wish to die

This article focuses on research ethics in highly intimate research with possible impact on life and death. In order to stimulate an open-ended dialogue about research ethics, we reflect on four ethical challenges that came up during our research into older people with a wish to die. Drawing on our experiences, we discuss (1) the possibly confirming influence of our research on the death wish (moral experience of whether or not to disregard responsibility); (2) the suggested duty to intervene (moral experience of whether or not to compromise the person’s autonomy); (3) the researcher’s authority and power over the data (moral experience of threatening a person’s self-narrative) and (4) the dilemma of intimacy (moral experience of encountering the tragic). For guidance in addressing these challenges, we draw upon work on research ethics from phenomenological and care ethics scholars, as well as from those writing about relational ethics in health research. We suggest that being open about ethical uneasiness is important, because in most cases of a grey area, there are only open-ended answers needing an enquiring mind, rather than clear and fixed guidelines. Acknowledgement of ethical uneasiness and open-ended reflexivity are indispensable to constitute a morally good research practice.     

学术论文一稿多投的"诊"与"治"

一稿多投是学术界由来已久且难以医治的顽症。究其原因,主要是科研压力之下作者的投机心态、作者投稿经验的匮乏、稿件时效性的压力以及网上投稿的便捷与低成本等因素使然。一稿多投会造成编方人力资源的浪费,容易引发一稿多发,挤占宝贵的版面资源,引起版权纠纷,破坏学术诚信,扰乱科研秩序。要从加强制度建设、加大惩罚力度、利用高科技进行防范、健全监督机制、加强学术道德教育、提高编辑效率等方面,把"他律"与"自律"结合起来,惩防并举,标本兼治,多管齐下,齐抓共管,从根本上规范科研活动,根治一稿多投顽症。     

基因编辑技术背后的伦理与人权

当前基因编辑技术发展迅速,引起各国政府、学术界和企业界的广泛关注。但从近期“基因编辑婴儿”事件来看,基因编辑技术的伦理问题仍须厘清,我国现行法律尚不完善。通过保护基因编辑婴儿隐私、切实发挥伦理委员会作用、加快相关立法工作,我们或可更好地解决基因编辑技术背后的伦理和人权问题。     

The Subpoena of Ethnographic Data

This essay outlines the author's experience of having his ethnographic data subpoenaed. It outlines the challenges of subpoena's to research, and suggests four solutions: (1) Apply for and utilize the National Institutes of Health certificate of confidentiality by asking health‐related questions over the course of one's research; (2) Establish a task force that articulates clear ethical guidelines for ethnographic research, with attention to the conditions wherein ethnographers can break confidentiality (and might also comply with subpoenas). These ethical guidelines should then be made clear to research subjects as a part of informed consent processes; (3) Demand that institutions (institutional review boards) that require confidentiality as a condition of research be required to defend that confidentiality through the office of the general counsel; (4) Socialize the cost of subpoenas, wherein scholars can be part of an insurance pool that will defend them in the event of a subpoena and thereby defend the general enterprise of ethnographic research.     

人工智能时代企业管理变革的逻辑与分析框架

人工智能作为社会发展和技术创新的产物,已经成为新一轮科技创新和产业变革的核心驱动力,正在对世界经济、社会进步和人民生活产生极其深刻的影响。人工智能的商业应用会改变企业内部运作和生产经营的过程,为企业管理带来了诸多挑战和变革机遇。本文结合人工智能的特征与发展趋势,从管理对象、管理属性、管理决策和管理伦理四个方面对人工智能时代企业管理变革的逻辑进行了梳理,得出如下推论:第一,人工智能时代,被管理者将出现越来越多的"人工智能员工",以"社会人"为中心的管理理论和管理手段的适用性降低,如何管理"人工智能员工"以及协调人类员工与智能机器人的关系将对管理者提出挑战;第二,人工智能时代,管理属性不仅包括管理理论的科学性、管理实践的艺术性,还包括管理过程的技术性;第三,人工智能时代,将出现一批优秀的技术管理者,此时,技术管理者指的不是管理技术的人,而是掌握智能技术的管理者;第四,人工智能时代,管理者的决策环境得到优化,管理活动中的决策准则将由"满意决策"过渡为"最优决策";第五,人工智能时代,管理手段的智能化发展可能会加剧管理效率和管理伦理的冲突,管理者必须提升管理道德,经营过程中强化社会责任的履行;第六,随着人工智能技术发展,政府、社会团体和行业协会有必要从政策、法律与行业标准等多个方面构建人工智能发展伦理的多层次约束机制。     

Developing ethical approaches to data and civil society: from availability to accessibility

This research note reflects on the gaps and limitations confronting the development of ethical principles regarding the accessibility of large-scale data for civil society organizations (CSOs). Drawing upon a systematic scoping study on the use of data in the United Kingdom (UK) civil society, it finds that there are twin needs to conceptualize accessibility as more than mere availability of data, as well as examine the use of data among CSOs more generally. In order to deal with the apparent “digital divide” in UK civil society – where, despite extensive government rhetoric about data openness, organizations face not only the barriers of limited time, funds, and expertise to harness data but also the lack of representation within existing data – we present a working model in which ethical concerns accompanying data utilization by civil society may be better accounted. This suggests there is a need for further research into the nexus of civil society and data upon which interdisciplinary discussion about the ethical dimensions of engagement with data, particularly informed by insight from the social sciences, can be predicated.     

中国科技期刊发展的伦理向度

科技期刊发展的新常态必然伴随着新的伦理问题。反思我国科技期刊发展过程中存在的各种问题，认为科技期刊只有把握好发展的伦理向度，坚持将履行社会责任作为期刊发展的第一要务，将恪守崇高学术风尚作为期刊发展的道德底线，将人文关怀贯穿于编辑出版活动的全过程，才能实现自身的健康快速发展。