Different cultures have different standards on issues such as plagiarism and authorship.
Mostly the answer that you can get is be practical. But i feel that you should stick to ethics even if your supervisor isn't. The prime reason is that you cannot convince your conscience if you take a different path. Let us not be like a flock of sheep.
Hi Mohamed, Judging from your youthful-looking picture, you have time on your side; and therefore you have the option of finding another supervisor. Why waste your time with someone whom you don't admire enough to emulate? There is a downside to associating with low-life's. As my mother always said, "If you lie down with dogs, you'll get fleas!" Believe me, Mohamed this is true. You will not be able to bring your supervisor up to your ethical level, you will sink to his/hers. Try and get ahold of the documentary on Enron - "The Smartest Guys in the Room" (it is on You-Tube). Watch the film twice so that you never forget the tragedy of those young guys who learned very quickly to ignore their own inner moral compasses because they were steeped in a culture of profit-maximization at any cost and cut-throat competition. The young guy who closes the film says it all, "I didn't ask WHY because I was afraid of what the answer would be -- that I was doing something immoral and maybe even illegal." Gwen
In addition to the great advice given below, I would recommend that you use e-mail to your advantage and try to follow up conversations with an e-mail summarizing what you have just talked. You can also send weekly e-mails to your supervisor about the progress that you have made, outlining what you have found and what they mean, and perhaps outlining what you have not found. Save those e-mails and any replies on several computers to protect yourself against any future charges. Good luck.
Hai Mohamed,
I understand your stand on what to do with an unethical supervisor. As in developed world this is not a problem and you have the right and accessibility to choose or change your supervisor, if they are immersed in unethical mud . But this is, of course, difficult in developing nations where the student is totally dependent on many issues on supervisor. There are issues if a student defend then seems difficult to complete the degree too. In that case the justification is difficult as that world is not following ethical principles completely. However there are true researchers among them too. Being in Alberta, you have to stand your own and raise the flag of ethics in research.
Hi Gunasingham, let me clarify I don't have any issue here in Alberta. My question is generic, what if the supervisor does not have ethics, so other researchers also learn from it. I personally had this issue with one of my former collaborators, thus I was not happy at all. Can you imagine, after spending so much time on a project developing algorithms, creating figures and tables, the collaborator just acknowledged me. My contribution was substantial and should be credited as a co-author.
In addition to the above responses, I suggest that you check with your institution to see whether it has any written policies that guide and influence your situation...
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