Ethical Principles Violated in Health Program and Evaluation
onsider the following scenario: "Who is the author?"
Ben is a professor of health sciences. He is serving as program chair for a conference with refereed publications. Ben suggests to his graduate student Alyssa that she submit a paper to the conference because, even though he cannot support her trip to the conference (being held abroad), he will be there and can present her paper. Alyssa writes the paper and gives several drafts to Ben, who does not comment on any of them. All the research is original work done by Alyssa while she was funded by an external fellowship. She submits the paper listing herself as the sole author.
Alyssa's paper gets accepted. The conference informs her that she is required to attend to present her paper. Surprised, she asks Ben about this policy, given that he had made no prior mention of it. Ben replies curtly that Alyssa will have to make him a co-author on her paper. Alyssa finds this unreasonable, particularly since Ben did not provide her with any feedback on the submission. Alyssa cannot afford to attend the conference on her own (Dennis & Fisler, 2008).
Dennis, J. & Fisler, K. (n.d.) Who is the Author? Retrieved from http://www(dot)cs(dot)rice(dot)edu/~vardi/comp601/case1.html
After reading the required background materials for this module and consulting the relevant peer-reviewed literature, please address the following questions in a four-page essay.
What (if any) ethical principles have been violated in this scenario?
Discuss the possible actions that Alyssa can take. Note the implications, ethical, professional, etc., for each course of action.
Now consider Ben's actions. Were these reasonable? Why or why not? (NOTE: Be sure to reflect upon relevant ethical principles in formulating your response.)
write a 4 page essay.
Health Program and Evaluation
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Health Program and Evaluation
For the case study scenario, Alysa is the author of the paper since she is the one who conducted research on the work and wrote the paper. However, an external fellowship assisted her by funding her in conducting research.
Ethical Principles that have been Violated in the Scenario
The scenario involves a violation of various ethical principles concerning the provision of healthcare services. Beneficence is one of the violated principles based on the author of the book. The doctrine arises if people do good to others, including moral obligation. Kindness, mercy, and charity are some of the acts that relate to the beneficence principle (Guerrero, 2019). Ben as the professor, should help Alysa by directing her on writing the paper and making any remarks from the case study. Although Alysa sent him several drafts, Ben seemed not to care about them. In this case, Ben should have sponsored her to present the paper, but he stated that he could not cater for her travel costs. Notably, the primary intention of Ben was to become a co-author.
Besides, openness and justice is an equally violated principle in the case scenario. Ben wants recognition as a co-author, yet he failed to assist Alysa in any form of writing or conducting research. Therefore, the act is unfair to her by demanding that he becomes a co-author while presenting the paper. In this case, Ben wanted recognition as a co-author without making any significant contribution to the paper’s publication. Such an act was against the principle of openness and justice and against Alysa’s efforts towards accomplishing set goals.
Lastly, truth-telling is a violated principle in the case of Alysa and Ben. The latter had informed Alysa that he would attend a conference and present the paper since he could not support her trip. However, Alysa realized that the paper was accepted and that she should attend the conference for the presentation. In this case, Ben failed to disclose to Alysa about the policy of presenting the paper, which made Alysa upset. Ben insisted that he should have a chance of presenting the paper as a co-author as the only option. However, Alysa found it unreasonable since Ben did not provide any feedback regarding the submission of the paper.
The Actions that Alyssa can Take
In response to the issues that emerged from the case scenario, Alysa can take various actions. Firstly, Alysa could have copyrighted her work as a strategy of preventing anyone else from using it. Notably, copyrighting is a legal measure within ethical standards to avoid any form of interference from other people, such as the use of their work (Gill, 2019). Through the copyright mechanism, Alysa would benefit from her efforts, which would protect her from any form of control from Ben. Copyright is one of the most effective practices that help protect the value of authors and researchers by giving the originator capability of safeguarding it from unaccredited usage. The strategy can foster intellectual creativity to ensure that Alysa would gain recognition for her effort.
Besides, Alysa should acknowledge the sources of her findings to avoid any form of ethical breaches. According to Loreggia et al. (2018), a rhetorical act in research is to cite external sources by documen...