Ethical Best Practices from Across Academia

Developed by the AIB Ethics Committee, this collection of resources is designed to introduce our members to current thought leaders in academic integrity and to provide guidance to scholars facing difficult ethical issues.

Academic Ethics

American Association of University Professors

What they provide: Statement on Professional Ethics

Why it’s helpful: Participation in any professional field carries with it a unique set of ethical responsibilities, and academia is no exception. The American Association of University Professors created its Statement on Professional Ethics to serve as a clear reminder of those responsibilities, which belong to every member of the profession.

Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

What they provide: Report from the Ethics Education Taskforce

Why it’s helpful: While many business schools express a commitment to “making the world a better place,” they often struggle to put those values into practice in their culture and curriculum. This AACSB report recommends several key initiatives to help these institutions put their ethical commitments into action.

Chronicle of Higher Education

What they provide: Academic Ethics Article Series

Why it’s helpful: These six in-depth articles cover some of the most pressing ethical issues facing faculty members and administrators in higher education today, including sexual harassment and academic free speech.

International Association of Universities

What they provide: Guidelines for an Institutional Code of Ethics in Higher Education

Why it’s helpful: The IUA’s guidelines are designed to assist universities in the process of adopting an official Code of Ethics or in reviewing and updating their existing Code to bring it into compliance with current best practices.

American Association of University Professors

What they provide: A Statement on Professional Ethics.

Why it’s helpful: Participation in any professional field carries with it a unique set of ethical responsibilities, and academia is no exception. The American Association of University Professors created its Statement on Professional Ethics to serve as a clear reminder of those responsibilities, which belong to every member of the profession.

Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

What they provide: A report from the Ethics Education Taskforce.

Why it’s helpful: While many business schools express a commitment to “making the world a better place,” they often struggle to put those values into practice in their culture and curriculum. This AACSB report recommends several key initiatives to help these institutions put their ethical commitments into action.

Chronicle of Higher Education

What they provide: An Academic Ethics article series.

Why it’s helpful: These six in-depth articles cover some of the most pressing ethical issues facing faculty members and administrators in higher education today, including sexual harassment and academic free speech.

International Association of Universities

What they provide: Guidelines for an Institutional Code of Ethics in Higher Education.

Why it’s helpful: The IUA’s guidelines are designed to assist universities in the process of adopting an official Code of Ethics or in reviewing and updating their existing Code to bring it into compliance with current best practices.

Research Ethics

All European Academies

What they provide: Code of Conduct for Research Integrity

Why it’s helpful: In addition to serving as a reference document for self-regulation standards in all EU-funded research projects, ALLEA’s Code of Conduct covers a number of emerging ethical challenges linked to new technologies, open science, and social media, among others.

Center for Open Science

What they provide: Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines for Journals and Guide to Registered Reports

Why it’s helpful: The Center’s Guidelines for Journals offer a flexible set of standards for academic transparency, allowing academic publications to select a level of stringency that’s most appropriate for their discipline. Their registered reporting guide provides instructions and resources for publications to incentivize author accuracy by eliminating the bias against negative research results.

Committee on Publication Ethics

What they provide: Ethical Decision-Making Resources

Why it’s helpful: COPE provides free-to-access resources focused on guiding ethical decision-making throughout the publication process, including case studies, sample guidelines and codes of conduct, as well as instructive flowcharts for managing common policy violations.

Institute for Scientific Information

What they provide: Global Research Report on Research Integrity

Why it’s helpful: This new report explains the different types of behavior beyond “fabrication, falsification and plagiarism” that undermine research integrity across the system, where these practices typically occur in the research lifecycle, and what you can do to combat them.

Journal of Business and Psychology

What they provide: Resources for Implementing a Results-Blind Review Process

Why it’s helpful: These guidelines are designed to help academic journals assess submissions based on the overall importance of their research question and the rigor of their methodological design, thereby reducing authors’ incentives to mis-report their results.

Journal of International Business Studies

What they provide: Universal Research Ethics and International Business Studies

Why it’s helpful: Over the last decade, business scholars have focused on a variety of important questions in research ethics, with significant attention being focused on the “grey” areas of questionable research practices. This editorial adopts a different approach. The normative foundations of research ethics, and the core values that should inform research in international business studies, are identified and related to AIB’s new and revised ethics codes. Explanations for the persistence and growth of research misconduct and detrimental research practices are provided. Finally, best practices for institutionalizing research ethics in international business studies are identified.

Nature

What they provide: The Authorship Rows that Sour Scientific Collaborations

Why it’s helpful: This article argues that collaborative research efforts suffer when junior scholars see their contributions to a paper downplayed. The author provides recommendations for avoiding or resolving this issue.

Responsible Research for Business and Management

What they provide: Seven Key Principles of Responsible Research

Why it’s helpful: The RRBM presents a “big picture” plan for restructuring the entire academic ecosystem, shifting incentives toward business and societal impact and away from insular, discipline-specific methods of assessment.

Retraction Watch

What they provide: Searchable Database of Retracted Research

Why it’s helpful: This free, comprehensive database provides a comprehensive record of published research which has since been discredited. Detailed search results include the reason(s) for retraction, date retracted, and the type of retraction notice issued by the publisher.

World Economic Forum

What they provide: Code of Ethics for Researchers

Why it’s helpful: Envisioned as a “universal” code of ethics, these standards are designed to be applicable across all research disciplines with an emphasis on helping the scientific community to translate their work into positive benefits for society as a whole.

All European Academies

What they provide: A Code of Conduct for Research Integrity

Why it’s helpful: In addition to serving as a reference document for self-regulation standards in all EU-funded research projects, ALLEA’s Code of Conduct covers a number of emerging ethical challenges linked to new technologies, open science, and social media, among others.

Center for Open Science

What they provide: Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines for Journals and a guide to registered reports.

Why it’s helpful: The Center’s Guidelines for Journals offer a flexible set of standards for academic transparency, allowing academic publications to select a level of stringency that’s most appropriate for their discipline. Their registered reporting guide provides instructions and resources for publications to incentivize author accuracy by eliminating the bias against negative research results.

Committee on Publication Ethics

What they provide: Ethical decision-making resources.

Why it’s helpful: COPE provides free-to-access resources focused on guiding ethical decision-making throughout the publication process, including case studies, sample guidelines and codes of conduct, as well as instructive flowcharts for managing common policy violations.

Journal of Business and Psychology

What they provide: Resources for implementing a results-blind review process.

Why it’s helpful: These guidelines are designed to help academic journals assess submissions based on the overall importance of their research question and the rigor of their methodological design, thereby reducing authors’ incentives to mis-report their results.

Journal of International Business Studies

What they provide: Universal Research Ethics and International Business Studies

Why it’s helpful: Over the last decade, business scholars have focused on a variety of important questions in research ethics, with significant attention being focused on the “grey” areas of questionable research practices. This editorial adopts a different approach. The normative foundations of research ethics, and the core values that should inform research in international business studies, are identified and related to AIB’s new and revised ethics codes. Explanations for the persistence and growth of research misconduct and detrimental research practices are provided. Finally, best practices for institutionalizing research ethics in international business studies are identified.

Nature

What they provide: The Authorship Rows that Sour Scientific Collaborations

Why it’s helpful: This article argues that collaborative research efforts suffer when junior scholars see their contributions to a paper downplayed. The author provides recommendations for avoiding or resolving this issue.

Responsible Research for Business and Management

What they provide: A position paper outlining seven key principles of responsible research.

Why it’s helpful: The RRBM presents a “big picture” plan for restructuring the entire academic ecosystem, shifting incentives toward business and societal impact and away from insular, discipline-specific methods of assessment.

Retraction Watch

What they provide: A searchable database of retracted research.

Why it’s helpful: This free, comprehensive database provides a comprehensive record of published research which has since been discredited. Detailed search results include the reason(s) for retraction, date retracted, and the type of retraction notice issued by the publisher.

World Economic Forum

What they provide: A Code of Ethics for Researchers.

Why it’s helpful: Envisioned as a “universal” code of ethics, these standards are designed to be applicable across all research disciplines with an emphasis on helping the scientific community to translate their work into positive benefits for society as a whole.