Dear sir,

This is interesting, thank you!

What most attracts me to Science and scientific studies is exactly the quest for Truth and Honesty. And the love for simple, accurate facts, acknowledged through honest research.

It is my belief that Science and Honesty work together and complement as an integrating part of each other.

There is no Science without honesty. And of course, we all know of a few attempts to bring false concepts , unethical behaviours, greed and dishonesty, to some scientific endeavours. But the simple fact remains that Science without Honesty is no Science at all. This is why I consider that many of those that consider themselves scientists, are no scientists at all...

Dear sir,

This is interesting, thank you!

What most attracts me to Science and scientific studies is exactly the quest for Truth and Honesty. And the love for simple, accurate facts, acknowledged through honest research.

It is my belief that Science and Honesty work together and complement as an integrating part of each other.

There is no Science without honesty. And of course, we all know of a few attempts to bring false concepts , unethical behaviours, greed and dishonesty, to some scientific endeavours. But the simple fact remains that Science without Honesty is no Science at all. This is why I consider that many of those that consider themselves scientists, are no scientists at all...

Honesty is a best policy is known to every individual as it is a old saying .In the present centuries all round development in various areas have offered a progressive scope of every individual.

When we talked regarding intellectual honesty we must start from student to every professional areas including business ,co-operate sector & we should move in the political canvas also .We refer to intellectual honesty .For honesty any line of demarcation is not desirable however for intellectual honesty individual must establish norms for his life .This may be helpful to him for every line of action but also of his members of family & surrounding fabrics .It is to be cultivated from the within any dishonest approach in the life any individual ,he should find guilty from the within .

This is applicable to every individual & of any professional line including social workers & politician .

This is my personal opinion 

Intellectual honesty is honesty in the acquisition, analysis, and transmission of ideas. A person is being intellectually honest when he or she, knowing the truth, states that truth. it is important that ways be found to make the interests of intellectuals coexist with the interests of those whose well-being depends on their intellectual honesty, if intellectual dishonesty is to be consistently avoided.

Louis M. Guenin describes the "kernel" of intellectual honesty --- to be "a virtuous disposition to eschew deception when given an incentive for deception.

Intellectual honesty is an applied method of problem solving, characterized by an unbiased, honest attitude, which can be demonstrated in symbols of different ways:

• One's personal beliefs do not interfere with the pursuit of truth

• Relevant facts and information are not purposefully omitted even when such things may contradict one's hypothesis

• Facts are presented in an unbiased manner, and not twisted to give misleading impressions or to support one view over another

• Not ignoring data points that look "bad" on the graph

• References, or earlier work, are acknowledged where possible

• plagiarism is avoided.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_honesty

http://pages.physics.cornell.edu/p510/w/images/p510/5/56/Ethics-1.pdf

Intellectual growth is nothing but the embodiment of truth in our consciousness and right way of doing things. Values of truth, measure the growth of our intellect and falsity  should not be a covered by the coat of truth as it will be discovered to be not, and honesty is the means  to measure it. Without a right measurement,  how could we definitively say something is growing. These are of course theoretical arguments and values that are virtuous but fail by the fallible humans. Today we observe not only dishonesty but dishonesty as a promoter and accelerator to success and good living.   

This is a good question.

Two quite helpful answers to question are

@Maria Bettencourt Pires: Science without Honesty is no Science at all.  From that, there is an implicit definition of intellectual honesty in science, namely, a noteworthy scientist always tells the truth and the honesty of a scientist provides a foundation for good science.

@Dejenie A. Lakew: Intellectual growth is nothing but the embodiment of truth in our consciousness and right way of doing things.   From that, there is also an implicit definition of intellectual honesty, namely, intellectual honesty is synonymous with truth in our way of doing things.

From my own perspective, intellectual honesty means frank admission of the strengths and weakensses of a theory.   For example, it is fairly easy to propound a new theory in mathematics based on the introduction of new symbols, reinterpretation of conventional symbols, definition of key terms of a new theory and a generous provision of theorems with detailed, easy-to-follow proofs.   Intellectual honesty enters into the picture in pointing out the weaknesses and limitations of a new theory.

Any theory and practical content shared for common good of people, should not be used by any person, unlawfully claiming, either part or full, in any form as their's is against intellectual honesty

http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SRCStatement-Intellectual-Honesty.pdf

If honesty, is telling the truth, then the problem is: What is truth? A theory is just a "mask" to reality. Some theories come to be regarded as "the only truth" and some years after everybody believes that it was false!  So "honesty" might be to have an "open" mind, and be always ready to change views if necessary.  

Dear Mohamed,

This a good question for which I have two thoughts. In my learning, I have found that it would be much easier to write a conclusion to a study in which the hypotheses were disproven. I look at it this way: If one's hypotheses are proven, where does one go from there? H1 was proven because....and then so what? What would they advocate for further study? If hypotheses were shown to be unfounded, this provokes many questions that the research could pose in their conclusion. Why was my hypothesis disproven? Was it due to the context? What other factors could have contributed to this result? It appears that it would be much easier to write the conclusion in that case.

Secondly, I learned yesterday what can happen to academics if they have an agenda. One researcher has paid the price for his activism and is now living on the streets of Tel Aviv under the protection of the German government. He recently fled the U.S. because federal agents were after him as he had criticized the corruption of the U.S. justice system.

I cannot understand why academics would resort to academic dishonesty and fall prey to a personal agenda. Regarding a grant-driven agenda as our dear Roland described, I can understand how an academic would not want to bite the hand that feeds them. Yet the repercussions of writing in favor of a government program that may in fact be detrimental to society by manipulation of statistics could have long-term consequences. Academics must consider the consequences of their actions.

Mainz, Germany

Dear Benmerikhi & readers,

One of my favorite passages on this topic comes from R.W. Emerson's essay, "Illusions," published in 1860 as the final essay in his book of that year, The Conduct of Life:

In this kingdom of illusions we grope eagerly for stays and foundations. There is none but a strict and faithful dealing at home, and a severe barring out of all duplicity or illusion there. Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth. I look upon the simple and childish virtues of veracity and honesty as the root of all that is sublime in character. Speak as you think, be what you are, pay your debts of all kinds. I prefer to be owned as sound and solvent, and my word as good as my bond, and to be what cannot be skipped, or dissipated, or undermined, to all the eclat in the universe. This reality is the foundation of friendship, religion, poetry, and art. At the top or at the bottom of all illusions, I set the cheat which still leads us to work and live for appearances, in spite of our conviction, in all sane hours, that it is what we really are that avails with friends, with strangers, and with fate or fortune.

--end quotation

Finishing up the essay, he quotes the Persian poet:

"Fooled thou must be, though wisest of the wise:

Then be the fool of virtue, not of vice."

My annotated edition of the book is available from many on-line book sellers, including the following:

http://www.amazon.de/The-Conduct-Life-Ralph-Emerson/dp/0761834117

Its a great book, and one of his very best.

H.G. Callaway

That is an interesting question... Intellectual honesty closely related to old-fashioned values such as propriety, integrity and sincerity, to a certain form of “inner decency”. It might might at the same time also be exactly what representatives of organized religions and theologians of any type simply cannot have, even if they would like to make claims to the contrary. Intellectual honesty means not pretending to know or even to be able to know the unknowable while still having an unconditional will to truth and knowledge, even where self-knowledge is involved and even where self- knowledge is not accompanied by pleasant feelings or is not in accordance with the received doctrine.on of ideas".

http://www.koomey.com/post/25385125958

http://theamericanscene.com/2010/09/12/explaining-intellectual-honesty

http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-examples-of-intellectual-honesty

http://www.juliansanchez.com/2010/09/13/intellectual-honesty/

http://www.antiochla.edu/student-resources/departments-offices/provost/intellectual-honesty-and-plagiarism/

http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2007/02/21/intellectual-honesty-in-scienc/

http://judithcurry.com/2013/04/20/10-signs-of-intellectual-honesty/

Dear @Mohamed, thanks for sharing this fine question. Scientist are assumed to be honest! Of course, they are supposed to be open minded as dear @Costas suggested. Let me bring some threads and resources about this issue. Hope it will be useful.

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

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

Article Intellectual Honesty

Article Open Access--A Case for Intellectual Honesty

1. Intellectual honesty is an illusion in a world flooded with information.

2. If we can get a software to sift the original thinking from intellectual extensions or intellectual super positions, we may have ever changing world.

3. We need to find ways and means to compensate adequately original thinking by rewards and recognition. 

Dear All,

Is it that I am too naive? I have thought always that the original and main aim of science is to look for the truth. By the way, our life is quite a short journey to find the truth in the labyrinth of nature and society. I think there is no extra intellectual truth and its relationship, the intellectual honesty. There is only a simple honesty. Regarding scientists, their responsibility is much bigger because they must easier and more efficiently orientate in the very complex nets of relations in the present and past.

Thus, a liar, a cheater cannot be a veritable scientist…   

The most efficient lies are those which with the help of sophisticated ability do doubt even the existence and validity of the simplest truths.     

 Please, remember, who asked first what is truth? 

Dear All,

To use quotation marks if citing something is also an approach of honesty!

To remain honest in intellectual life is hard but possible by patience and persistence.

Maintaining hundred percent  Intellectual honesty is near to impossible. A researcher has to edit the data, apply research tools, interpret the results, literature review, document the results, and communicates the results. In this so lengthy process, may be inadvertently, may commit certain mistakes, that may lead to dishonesty.

10 Signs of Intellectual Honesty:

• Do not overstate the power of your argument
• ...      ...
• Be willing to publicly acknowledge and question one’s own assumptions and biases
• Be willing to publicly acknowledge when you are wrong
• Show a commitment to critical thinking....

https://designmatrix.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/10-signs-of-intellectual-honesty/

Mainz, Germany

Dear Kundu,

If you had said maintaining intellectual honesty is "difficult," then I would be somewhat more sympathetic to your comments, but "near impossible" seems too strong.

You wrote:

Maintaining hundred percent Intellectual honesty is near to impossible. A researcher has to edit the data, apply research tools, interpret the results, literature review, document the results, and communicates the results. In this so lengthy process, may be inadvertently, may commit certain mistakes, that may lead to dishonesty.

---end quotation

I notice that you got some up-votes for your posting. So, perhaps your comments could be expanded. But consider your list: "editing," "applying research tools," "interpreting results," "reviewing the literature," "documenting and communicating results." None of these activities strike me as requiring departures from intellectual honesty, though that is not to say they present no difficulties. So, why should you mention them in apparent support for your claim that " Maintaining hundred percent Intellectual honesty is near to impossible"?

The inadvertent and mistakes are not dishonest. Why do you think they lead to lack of honesty--or need lead to it?

I'm puzzled by your posting. I see some opportunity here to explore the difficulties that concern you.

H.G. Callaway

Cognitive development is centered on one’s knowledge and understanding of what is true and important to know. It includes viewing knowledge and knowing with greater complexity; no longer relying on external authorities to have absolute truth; and moving from absolute certainty to relativism when making judgments and commitments within the context of uncertainty. Exhibition of intellectual honesty is through cultivation of a life-long engagement in intellectual growth and responsibility for learning.

First of all, we often have been told that there is a clear division between appropriating and stealing (of ideas, concepts, writings, publications, recipes).  This is an illusion.

For example, as a child, we (in the USA) were taught that it was OK for Americans in the 1790s and early 19th century, such as Eli Whitney, to go over to industrial England and spy in order to create the production method of interchangeable parts.   These early industrial producers were national heroes. However, fast forward to 1990 and the USA is all upset about Japan and China taking over our ideas.

Likewise, when it came to creating a structural model for DNA  in the early 1950s, Crick and Watson certainly took ideas from others to create their Noble prize winning work.  

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/sep/29/letters-dna-double-helix-francis-crick

I think that looking at the terms "appropriation" and "copyright"--along with other concepts (and how they change over time), Mohammed, you will be able to get a better hold of what you are observing in your field and in others.

The current trend to extend copyright laws in the new TPP has now been responded to in a series of other battles--politically and academically. (Monsanto and others have until now dominated in defining some of the terms as we use them today.)

This issue that you raise needs in some ways to become a part of the battle for- and of- the most important issues of our day!  To what degree do we share and to what degree to we compete and appropriate?

http://www.politico.com/prescriptionpulse/0615/prescriptionpulse18745.html

Thank you Kevin.

You point to 2 interesting aspects that  I have not thought of when I posted the question.

1. Highlighting the macro level aspect in terms of appropriation (seemingly regardless of legal frameworks) and

2. Redefining some of the terms associated with the process of approapriation

There is certainly substance for further discussion of the implications of these aspects on individual level isues of intellectual honesty.

It depends on how honestly we deal with data and communicates results to stakeholders and public.

For me intellectual honesty is to disseminate and debate what we know as scientists or intellectuals, criticize what is not working in the right way, and point to what is wrong, weak or not objective, and acknowledging the good or best ideas and works. And among all be able to say "i don't know; it is not in my competency", or "sorry, i was wrong and i should correct it". Each scientific work is reviewed by peers, stolen ideas could be discovered sooner or later, since an idea who emerged in a mind couldn't' grow properly or be as efficient  in another mind. The mind promoter of the idea is more able to expend the idea , its tools and processes with its proper thinking talent. An equation or an algorithm has a solution but the method of resolving it couldn't be same.

University of California

All persons engaged in research at the University are responsible for adhering to the highest standards of intellectual honesty and integrity in research. Faculty and other supervisors of research activities have a responsibility to create an environment which encourages those high standards and integrity in research. Open publication and discussion, emphasis on quality of research, appropriate supervision, maintenance of accurate and detailed research procedures and results, and suitable assignment of credit and responsibility for research and publications are essential for fostering intellectual honesty and integrity in research

http://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/apm/apm-190-b.pdf

Krishnan, you are giving a normative position above, but, what is the de facto situation in the trenches?

Moreover, who defines integrity and the rules in higher education for you.

In grad school, many students are first coming fully face-to-face in their introductory courses, their training, practicum, research and other experiences to the fact that in most of the sciences--not just my social sciences--that thievery of idea and research runs rampant in academia and research (private or public).

That is why I am grateful that in my introductory course as a grad student at Texas A & M that our professor had us read up on the Crick and Watson story, so we could see how much giving and taking went into the double helix.  There was a race in research and the competitors fought like any Fortune 500 firm to get ahead--and that was in the hard sciences.  Imagine how it is in less cut and dried science fields like my political science one!!!

Here is a quick look at the variety of ways that demonstrate this introspective (rather than normative) view on academia and research.

Corporate elites as informants in qualitative international business research

C Welch, R Marschan-Piekkari, H Penttinen… - International Business …, 2002 - Elsevier

... to balance the power of elite interviewees while maintaining the requirements of academic integrity. ...

likely to be wary of, or else indifferent towards, encounters with academics. ... subordinate and

sounding board, sympathiser and critic, therapist and spy, academic and consultant. ...

Cited by 165 Related articles All 7 versions Cite Save

[BOOK] Privacy in context: Technology, policy, and the integrity of social life

H Nissenbaum - 2009 - books.google.com

... In academia, interest in privacy can be attributed not only to its growing ... Accordingly, help from

colleagues—academics, practitioners, and policy advocates—who shared and interpreted ...

informational norms—when, in the words of the framework, they violate contextual integrity. ...

Cited by 799 Related articles All 6 versions Cite Save

From spy to okay guy: trust and validity in fieldwork with the police

S Herbert - Geographical review, 2001 - Wiley Online Library

... thinks he's an okay guy.” I came to believe that my fictional transformation from “spy” to “okay

guy ... LAPD officers were unused to having people, especially academics, do ride-alongs. ... adopt

strategies that help ensure trust, al- though never at the cost of personal integrity or critical ...

Cited by 11 Related articles All 6 versions Cite Save

[PDF] from researchgate.net

Ethical and strategic issues in organizational social network analysis

SP Borgatti, JL Molina - The Journal of Applied Behavioral …, 2003 - jab.sagepub.com

... and organizational decisions, and particularly if they do so in an unethical man- ner, academics

will be ... fall into a gray area that is between clearly acceptable scrutiny and clearly inappropriate

spying. ... The second aspect of the lack-of-consent issue has to do with data integrity. ...

Cited by 137 Related articles All 11 versions Cite Save

Postscript Integrity and Emotion in Prisons Research

A Liebling - Qualitative Inquiry, 2014 - qix.sagepub.com

... in this for us?”, and “how do I know you're not a spy!” These unwelcome ... Partnerships with

established academics have been one successful means of harnessing the skills and strengths

of ... It is important, however dif- ficult, at these times to retain and defend the integrity of the ...

Cited by 7 Related articles All 2 versions Cite Save

[PDF] from asbbs.org

[PDF] Understanding academic integrity in the online learning environment: A survey of graduate and undergraduate business students

MT Cole, LB Swartz - Proceedings of the 20th Annual ASBBS …, 2013 - asbbs.org

... Suggestions for maintaining academic integrity included: • Checking cited work • “Spying” on

students using ... between males and females with regard to perceptions of academic integrity and

between ... to be thriving and as MOOCs gain acceptance in academia, the interest in ...

Cited by 1 Related articles All 3 versions Cite Save More

AAUP perspectives on academic freedom and United States intelligence agencies

BR Kreiser - JC & UL, 1992 - HeinOnline

... Academics who perform covert intelligence work ... As citizens engaged in a profession that depends

upon freedom for its health and integrity, professors have a ... that academic institutions forswear

the advantages of covert surveillance and not themselves seek to spy upon anyone ...

Cited by 6 Related articles All 2 versions Cite Save

The Teacher as Scholar-Spy: The CIA and the Academy

R Radosh - Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 1976 - Taylor & Francis

... F. Devlin could tell assembled his- torians that he finds agency covert spy- ing within ... reluctant

SD officials to become in- volved in acts of mass murder, spying, and informing ... President Van

Alstyne makes clear, working for the CIA under- mines the integrity and independence of ...

Cited by 1 Related articles All 3 versions Cite Save

11 Subjectivities,'suspect communities', governments, and the ethics of research on 'terrorism'

MB Smyth - Critical terrorism studies: a new research agenda, 2009 - books.google.com

... challenge to the researcher is to address the suspicions that they may be a spy. ... likely to be

hyper-vigilant about the possibilities of infiltration, surveillance, and spying, and their ... Such

conditionality could compromise the integrity of the research and hold a metaphorical gun to ...

Cited by 20 Related articles Cite Save

A different kind of ethics

J Ferdinand, G Pearson, M Rowe, F Worthington - Ethnography, 2007 - eth.sagepub.com

... they were fundamentally opposed to obviously raised questions about their integrity. ... of football

supporters by the police, and the perceived exploitation of labour by The Spy are all ... For some,

covert research is tantamount to spying, especially if – as in the case of The Hooligan's ...

Cited by 42 Related articles All 2 versions Cite Save

How do scientific revolutions come about? If we have two rival research programmes, and one is progressing while the other is degenerating, scientists tend to join the progressive programme. This is the rationale of scientific revolutions. But while it is a matter of intellectual honesty to keep the record public, it is not dishonest to stick to a degenerating programme and try to turn it into a progressive one

http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/MNSES9100/v13/pensumliste/pseudoscienc/Lakatos-Science%20pseudoscience.pdf

10 signs of intellectual honesty

https://designmatrix.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/ten-signs-of-intellectual-honesty-2/

 Under oath of secrecy it is not possible to be honest for most of the scientists.. With the people the most degenerating program is followed as explained by Krishnan.

Honesty I found in the music, even without words. The truth is hided for the people that's why we need art with all its symbols and metaphors to bring the people on a higher level of consciousness before it is destroyed for political and economic purposes..

Dear @Subhash, my answer "10 Signs of Intellectual Honesty" was 32nd on the previous page!

Dear Ljubomir,

Sorry for that. It is repeated.

You are absolutely right dear @Roland. Dear @Mahmoud had a fine thread about the issue of integrity!

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

Accept the obligation to exercise critical self-discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge. They practice intellectual honesty. Although professors may follow subsidiary interests, these interests must never seriously hamper or compromise their freedom of inquiry.

http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/fsonline/customcf/currentfacultymanual/part5section2.pdf

Intellectual honesty: A key to ethical behavior and practice! It is based on blog What Happened to Intellectual Honesty?

"Harvard ethicist Louis M. Guenin describes the “kernel” of intellectual honesty as “a virtuous disposition to eschew deception when given an incentive for deception.” Intellectual honesty involves presenting and discussing facts in an inclusive, fair, and open-minded manner. It entails examining and considering all available data not just the information that supports one’s preferred solution or position. Intellectual honesty requires that people put aside personal interests and assumptions and be as objective as possible. The opposite of intellectual honesty is “spin” – creating misleading, distorted, or false impressions by intentionally omitting some facts and/or selectively emphasizing or exaggerating others to promote one position or viewpoint over another. Spinning is calculated misrepresentation..."

https://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/intellectual-honesty-a-key-to-ethical-behavior-and-practice/

https://findfulfillflourish.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/what-happened-to-intellectual-honesty/

See ...