About ethical and non-ethical aspects of scientific activity

Abstract

In this article the author argues that engagement in scientific research and didactics on university level requires high ethical standards. Truth as a basic value implies a special quality of the scientific research and interpersonal attitudes. The author focuses on selected issues grouped into few sets of problems: 1) criteria of decision making in choosing topics for the investigations, 2) publication strategies, 3) promoting young scientists, 4) interpersonal relationships influencing quality of research – team problems, critique, cooperation, and competition, 5) respecting authorship of ideas and participation in the researches, 6) management of scientific institutions – priorities, challenges, and Machiavellian strategies, 7) making profits on scientific activity and applications, 8) marketing strategies promoting and disturbing scientific activity, 9) ideological biases and socio-political engagement of the scholars representing the humanities and social sciences. The main thesis of the article is that developing healthy interpersonal relationships contributes to one’s respect for the truth as a crucial value of scientific activity.