Page 21 - Academic and Research Book_WEB

as a stepping stone for the next level of enquiry, its dissemination to a larger peer group is a social
responsibility. Sharing of the new research output enhances the knowledge base of the recipients in
a society and thus promotes overall advancement. If not shared, not only does the new knowledge
remain largely unutilized or utilized in a very limited manner, it also ‘dies’ with the discoverer.
From the very beginning of human civilization, informal and formal sharing of research output of
individuals/groups with other members of the society has been the driving force that catalysed the
remarkable cultural and technological progresses achieved through the millennia.

During the historic and pre-historic periods, much of the research was driven by individual’s curiosity
and pursued by individuals out of their own volition. Organized research was mostly limited to the
few universities that existed in historical times. In some cases, organized research efforts in specific
directions were also commissioned by the state or the more affluent members of the society or
religious centres. Thus organized research has always been supported by society in one form or the
other. With the widespread establishment of universities and other academic/research institutions
across the globe during the past few centuries, research activity has transformed from the self-driven
and self-satisfying activity to a largely state-driven and, to a varying extent, state-regulated activity. As
the research efforts in science become more dependent upon rapidly advancing technologies, the cost
of research has also gone up substantially in recent times. This has made most research, especially in
the sciences, to be majorly supported by public funds routed through governmental agencies and to a
lesser extent by individuals or private organizations. Such organized research and the financial support
for it have completely transformed the face of research during the past 100 years or so. We cannot
now imagine the scenario under which great scientists such as, J.C. Bose or C.V. Raman pursued their
research interests, largely on their own.

The practice of organized financial support for research, while largely responsible for the remarkable
progress in all spheres of our lives, has also generated ethical issues.

Research and Ethics

Ideally, research is the pursuit of truth. Therefore, at first sight it may look paradoxical that one has to
ensure ethical behaviour in the pursuit of truth. It is common experience that new research studies
reveal varying degrees of error in the earlier accepted inferences/interpretations that were based
on past scholarly studies and were conducted on the basis of the then known principles and facts,
using the best possible ethical, experimental, and other precautions. Such finding of ‘error’ does not,
however, mean that the conclusions/interpretations advanced by the earlier studies were arrived at by
deliberate or inadvertent erroneous or unethical methods. All research studies rely on the available
base knowledge or as known to the investigator at the given time. As the knowledge base expands, it
is more likely that something that was accepted as fact at a given point of time, needs modification or
even rejection. Indeed, it is only when some established ideas/interpretations are shown to be wanting
in some respects by subsequent studies that a perceptible quantum progress in our knowledge and
understanding of nature becomes evident. Being proven wrong, therefore, does not by itself imply
unethical conduct by earlier researchers. However, issues of research integrity and ethical conduct
arise if the results and/or their interpretations in the previous study were arrived at by deliberately
biased methods or with some other selfish motive.
Research is an essential and organized component of academic activity. The expansion and
transformation of research activity from an intellectually self-satisfying curiosity-driven individual
or group effort has transformed research into a ‘market-driven’ organized activity, mandated and
regulated by academic and/or commercial institutions. While such expansion has indeed been the

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