At the invitation of Professor Lubomira Radoilska, Dr. Erik Malmqvist and Dr. Olle Blomberg from the University of Gothenburg will give an online talk at the GSEJ seminar, titled ‘Scientific Authorship and Collective Responsibility’ between 12:00-13:30 GMT on 25 January 2023.
The event is free and open to all. Please register here.
Abstract: In cases of scientific misconduct, authorship is the primary basis of accountability. This gives rise to a problem when scientific publications have multiple authors: it is often unclear who should be held responsible. How could co-authors be held responsible in a way that is fair and acceptable to the academic community as well as the public at large? Some guidelines for scientific publishing refer to the “joint” or “collective” responsibility of authors, but it is unclear how these notions are interpreted in decisions regarding responsibility for misconduct. In the research ethics literature, they are typically given an individualistic interpretation, implying that each coauthor is fully and equally responsible for the misconduct. However, this notion raises concerns about unfair sanctioning of individuals who may not have been involved in or even known about the misconduct. Could a group of authors fairly be held responsible as a group, without this implying that individual coauthors necessarily are held responsible? We explore this possibility by drawing on work on complicity and collective responsibility, and by clearly distinguishing between the responsibility for the misconduct itself and the responsibility for publishing the research in the public domain.
Speakers’ bio:
Dr. Erik Malmqvist is Senior Lecturer in Practical Philosophy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He conducts research on a variety of topics in moral and political philosophy and applied ethics, including the ethics of scientific research.
Dr. Olle Blomberg is a researcher in Practical Philosophy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, employed by the Lund Gothenburg Responsibility Project (PI: Prof. Paul Russell). His research is primarily focused on shared and collective agency, moral responsibility and moral psychology.”