The report on the activity of the Commission of the Ethics in Science in the year 2012

Abstract

The report of the Commission of the Ethics in Science concerns the activity of the Commission in the year 2012. Following the statutory regulation the Commission has prepared a Draft Code of the Ethics of Scientists, which has been adopted by the Plenary Assembly of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). In this report the Commission stresses its own lack of the jurisdiction in deciding the particular disciplinary cases and that this situation is perfectly right. The role of the Commission is to formulate the ethical standards applicable in the field of sciences. As example of such standard arising from the current needs the Commission has laid out a duty of the members of the scientific community not to abuse the researcher’s authority on the fields which are outside of her or his domain of competence. In the report are named the examples of selected issues being considered by the Commission and where the Commission has formulated its final opinion.