Honesty, Commitment, Hard work, Obedience, Mutual Trust.

Most of the time honesty makes lot of troubles in life and in work.

Honesty, Commitment, Hard work, Obedience, Mutual Trust.

Most of the time honesty makes lot of troubles in life and in work.

Lijo I agree with you. I also thought so. I found that transparency, perseverance, honesty, dignity of discourse, and merit-orientation--my values--became obstructions for me in a big way. Finally, I thought, what I did not get when I thought I deserved something proved a boom rather than bane. i would certainly not have been happier than perhaps what I am today.

My top five values include, originality, honesty, persistence, transparency, and teamwork spirit with co-authors.

Honesty,

Originality

Motivation

Commitment

teamwork

Originality

Honesty

Perseverance

Scientific integrity

Teamwork

Debi: All answers are great and talk about the required qualities. Since you have asked for only five, it is tough to decide.

Dear Debi, below are my 5 values

honesty

communicativeness (emic perspective valuation)

coherence

originality

flexibility

There is another similar thread

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_do_you_think_are_the_most_important_personal_characteristics_of_a_successful_researcher

1. Enjoyment (is first because you cannot keep it up for long unless you do not enjoy it)

2. Curiosity - it is always important to look at hings with new eyes

3. Relevance of the research performed with respect ot other people's life - we are social animals and (prevalently) cooperative. We are pleased to be helpful since this increases self-esteem

4. Determination - it is important to bite the bullet and show to yourself firs of all that you are ready to put in all the effort that it takes to solve/investigate

5. Team work - it is much more productive and enjoyable to work with toher people that share your own interests

6. Scientific relevance - it is nice to study interesting and relevant-hard to tackle issues

onesty is not a value it is a pre-requisite.

Regards

edoardo

Thank you all for your forthright and very interesting answers to the question about values and their role in the conduction of research.

Especially in developing countries there is a problem of valuing hierarchy and seniority; often people do not challenge them and become victim of these societal values. There are several cases of exploitation of researchers by people in superior position over them. These practices include, asking the researcher to do personal errands for the supervisor; putting the supervisor's name in the paper being published from the researcher's research even though s/he has made no contribution to the paper at all, in some cases the researcher is covertly forced to marry a close relation of the supervisor. There are some interesting skits and even films on these practices. In fact, there are a large number of cases where the supervisors/ project leaders put her/his name as the first author. There are cases where some journals pay a token money to the author/s when the paper is published. The check comes in the name of the first author, who in this case was the supervisor. He kept that money as well. And, this corrupt professor was recently conferred by his beneficiary students with "Life time achievement award," as one of his Ph.D. students had become dean of the same faculty. And, all this happened in one of the supposedly top university in India.

In India, there are lot many cases of such exploitation. I remember, in another faculty where a researcher supervised the house construction of his supervisor for one year; he was selected for a permanent faculty appointment as his supervisor was the Dean of the faculty and had the key influence in selecting the interviewer' panel as well as making the ultimate decision. Several much better candidates did not feel shocked at this because they knew before hand that that was going to happen; for they knew the true story. There are also a number of cases of sexual exploitation/harassment of the researcher by the supervisor. Most are not reported due to various kind of fears of the victim.

In fact, one of my co-authors from a developed country told me that some these practices happen in some cases in that country also, though in different forms.

At the same time, there might be some cases where one is positively benefited by one's values such as empathy, transparency, perseverance, etc., which impress the supervisor and s/he recommends the researcher for research grants or faculty positions or something similar.

But perhaps more cases relate to those where the researcher is adversely affected. I was wondering if some of you would want to share such experiences as well.

Debi: What you say is true and is an open secret. I have seen that in many places in India. But I also have seen that in other countries as well. So it is not uncommon may be the degree. Unfortunately in India particularly in the Government universities it is rampant. People are afraid to confront because of many reasons.

Wow! Open secret!

These are my 5 values .

1) Creativity : The person with creative ideas should be given due recognition .

2) Team work : Research is a team work & needs a talented & committed team . Every junior person's effort should be acknowledged & they should be made co authors .

3) Hard work : Collecting data & references needs hard work .

4) Motivation : The team leader should be able to motivate his team to achieve results

5) Integrity : The results & data of the work done should not be manipulated . The senior faculty should desist from exploiting his team . In fact , he should treat them with respect .

I agree with Debi Saini views on exploitation by senior faculty members on junior researchers . This reveals the lack of integrity of the supervisor in stealing the creative work of the juniors & destroying their identity & also humiliating them . This is a serious threat to good quality research , as motivation of the researcher is lost & they are busy pleasing their boss . It is essential that good scientific work ethics are strictly enforced , but is difficult in practice . This probably can be reduced by the Institution administration getting a private feed back from researchers on the working environment & removing errant senior faculty members from their positions . But , this is easier said than done !