Ethics in Research Cathy Constable and Steve Constable Geophysics Research Discussion Week 4: Writing Papers and Proposals

Transcription

1 Ethics in Research Cathy Constable and Steve Constable Geophysics Research Discussion Week 4: Writing Papers and Proposals Discussion and questions are encouraged but no naming of names, please.

2 36. Sharing of Findings, Data, and Other Research Products a. NSF expects significant findings from research and education activities it supports to be promptly submitted for publication, with authorship that accurately reflects the contributions of those involved. It expects investigators to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the data, samples, physical collections and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of the work. It also encourages awardees to share software and inventions or otherwise act to make the innovations they embody widely useful and usable. b. Adjustments and, where essential, exceptions may be allowed to safeguard the rights of individuals and subjects, the validity of results, or the integrity of collections or to accommodate legitimate interests of investigators.

3 Sharing results: There is an obligation to publish - someone is paying you to do research with the assumption that you will share your results. Value of data is lost when results are not communicated. If you publish an analysis of a data set, it is nice to make the data available so others can reproduce your work - some funding agencies require this. The issue of data citation is receiving considerable attention. Code is tricky. Personally, we don t like to read papers on results from running code that is not publicly available. But, the University may hold copyright and want to license code to generate revenue. A balance may be to distinguish between academic and commercial use.

4 Nature Geoscience, November, 2014

5 Open Access to Scientific Publications feature=player_embedded&v=l5rvh1kgbcy

6 Choosing a journal by impact factor: Ultra-high impact: Science (33), Nature (38), PNAS (10) Solid society journals: JGR (3), GJI (2.5), Phys. Rev. Lett. (7), Phil Trans A (2.9), Phil Trans B (7.3) For-profits: PEPI (2.3), EPSL (4), Tectonophysics (2.4) Second-tier: Bull. Marine Sciences (1), Bull. Can. Pet. Geol. (0.8) Not tracked: Bull. Aust. S.E.G., etc.

7 Science Writing: - includes reporting science (papers), grant proposals, oral presentations, posters, review papers k peer reviewed science journals currently published (more than 8400 currently listed by Thompson- Reuters) - need for clarity and conciseness so that message is received and understood - organization is required

8 IMRAD Introduction - What question was studied? Method - How was the study conducted? Results - What were the findings? and Discussion - What do the findings mean?

9 How to write and Publish a Scientific Paper R.A. Day and B. Gastel, 2006, 6th Edition, Greenwood Press. Importance of the title - may be read by thousands of people (unlike most papers) - need the fewest possible words adequately describing content of paper - use as a label not an abstract - be specific enough - get the syntax right

10 Abstract Miniature version of the paper - a summary of the information in each section - objectives and scope - describe methods - summarize results - state principal conclusions

11 Writing Issues Establishing the mindset Think about effective tables and figures Writing clearly requires you to think about things from the readers perspective Your first draft can be for you to get ideas down, then you have to worry about communicating them to the reader Gopen & Swan (1990), The Science of Scientific Writing, American Scientist, 78,

12 The vanity press Nature s criteria for publication: Provides strong evidence for its conclusions. Novel (we do not consider meeting report abstracts and preprints on community servers to compromise novelty). Of extreme importance to scientists in the specific field. Ideally, interesting to researchers in other related disciplines. Science: Research papers sent to Science should be novel findings at the forefront of their fields, with broad scientific implications, written concisely and engagingly.

13 Abuses in writing papers LPUs - Least publishable unit Double dipping Multiple simultaneous submissions Inappropriate authorships What does in press mean?

14 Least Publishable Units (LPUs) versus too many ideas in one paper. The LPU approach is considered poor behavior. BUT, one might make the case that papers get associated (and cited) for one main idea.

15 Preparing NSF Proposals

16 Parts of an NSF proposal: Information about PIs Suggested reviewers (optional) a. Cover sheet and Certification Page b. Project Summary (1 page) c. Table of Contents (generated by Fastlane) d. Project Description (15 pages) e. References f. Biographical Sketch(es) (2 pages each) g. Budget (each year plus totals) Budget Justification (3 pages) h. Current and Pending Support i. Facilities, Equipment, other Resources j. Supplementary Documentation: Postdoc Mentoring Plan (1 page) Data Management Plan (2 pages) Letters of commitment from collaborators UNOLS ship time request form

17 Both the Summary and Description must explicitly cover intellectual merit and broader impacts : What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity? How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct the project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of prior work.) To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts? How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to resources? What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g.,gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)? To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society?

18 Proposals must be associated with a program announcement from NSF. Programs have either a target date or a deadline. Examples: Marine Geology and Geophysics, target dates Feb. 15 and August 15 Physical Oceanography, target dates Feb. 15 and August 15 Geophysics, deadlines June 5 and Dec. 5 CSEDI, deadline 4th Monday in September MARGINS, deadline July 1 Earthscope, deadline July 16 Petrology and Geochemistry, deadlines July 6 and Dec. 6 Earth Science Instrumentation and Facilities, target dates second Wed. in Feb., third Monday in July

19 Flow of a proposal through the system: Institutional paperwork SIO C&G you NSF Fastlane proposals linked by lead inst. NSF Program Program Manager NSF Panel you collaborators collaborators at other insitutions NSF Fastlane collaborator s C&G ~6 reviewers