Hi,

I had a case in which an editor of a journal urged me to cite a certain professor as a condition for my paper to be published, although the professor I was supposed to cite, had very little relation to my work.

Usually when a professor adds his name to a scientific work, he is contributing something, an advice, or some corrections. If his contribution to the article is minor, then he puts his name at the end of the authors' list.

Personally, I can understand the frustration when facing unethical conduct in the academia, and it is impressive that you left a tenure track position because of it. I hope that this move will change bad habits in the academia.

Hi Avishag, Thank you for your answer. Students had ethics issues and I think its the worst thing in academia that can happen when students have ethics issues with someone in high and these went unanswered. Women may have higher ethics because every other male was fine with his actions even though they would gossip about it. I think there was a study and analysis showing that women have higher ethics in sciences and engineering.

Hi Orkid,

I think you are right. The women-students are facing, in addition to ethical problems, also gender-source problems, and it seems that these two types of problems are connected. Very often, professors in my country, have to discuss science problems with their students (female) in an open restaurant to avoid any suspicion of wrong doing. 

Hi Avishag, It is nice to meet you here even though virtually. I agree with you. It is everywhere though. I was in the United States for 13 years and moved back to Europe. Students faced ethics issues . At least that's what they stated.

Hi,

It seems to be a global problem. I wish that more positive aspects of life will go global too.

Regards.

It is good to have COPE for such issues! COPE provides leadership in thinking on publication ethics, practical resources to educate and support members, and offers a professional voice in current debates.

https://publicationethics.org/

The COPE Complaints process was established in 2010 [revised in 2014] as a means of providing independent guidance to our member editors and publishers on disputed matters of publication ethics. While the members of the Complaints subcommittee have worked tirelessly to provide advice and to assist in resolving complaints brought to the subcommittee’s attention, often those efforts have been frustrated by a number of issues, one of which is the absence of any defined enforcement mechanism. (See here for more information on the newly constituted Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee). Consequently, the Trustee Board have defined an organizational position and policy concerning sanctions against members who demonstrate major or consistent deviations from the principles of publication ethics agreed to when applying for and receiving COPE membership...

https://publicationethics.org/files/COPE_SanctionsPolicy.pdf