Ethics discussion: Writing a journal paper ethically

Abstract: Since journal papers, conference papers, book chapters, and books are the currency of the research community, your publications must be ethically produced. Plagiarism of any idea or passage from a prior work must be avoided, especially if that idea or passage has not permeated the research literature. Although there is no need to cite the Principia for the standard laws of Newtonian mechanics, both standard textual matter and recently published textual matter can be paraphrased but not copied and the source must be cited. Wholesale changes to notation and distortion of the form of an equation are unnecessary, but the source must be cited. The sources of published data used in your paper, etc., must be cited; additionally, explicit permission must be taken from the collectors/owners of unpublished data. Care must be taken to ensure that all data, whether yours or of others, has been ethically and legally acquired. Misleading data must never be presented. All relevant affiliations and conflicts of interest must be disclosed.

Bio: Akhlesh Lakhtakia has haunted the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics for more than 38 years, after having been shown the door, in 1979 by the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) and in 1983 by the University of Utah. He has published sufficiently and acquired enough notoriety to remain employed. Every so often, he slinks away to some other university for a short duration in order to elude the administrative personnel at Penn State.

Additional Information:

Please contact Lisa Spicer at lms8@psu.edu for Zoom information.