Do scientific and scholarly codes of ethics take social issues into account?

Codes of ethics and ethics guidelines define standards of professional conduct, and ways to prioritize or balance ethical principles when these appear to be in conflict. In 1991 an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars met at the University of Toronto to discuss these problems in a Workshop on Ethical Considerations in Scholarship and Science. A document, “The Toronto Resolution”; (TTR), was developed, providing twelve principles for incorporation into scientific and scholarly codes, with the object of ensuring that professionals in science recognize the potential consequences of their work in the broader social context. To examine the extent to which existing codes are consonant with The Toronto Resolution's 12 principles, a content analysis was conducted on the codes of 21 Ontario‐based scientific and scholarly organizations. Criteria used in the content analysis were standardized and determined to be reliable. Only a weak correspondence was found between the contents of the codes of the scientific and scholarly organizations surveyed here and the principles set out in TTR. In particular, guidelines on specific social issues such as environmental effects or conflict resolution are scarcely mentioned at all. This study encourages consideration of The Toronto Resolution by the ethics committees of scientific and scholarly associations, as codes are revised or as new interpretations of principles in the codes evolve.

Keywords:

• Social issues
• codes of ethics
• The Toronto Resolution
• social responsibility
• ecosystem
• militarism