Identifying the Ethical Issues in Research and the Process of Gaining the Scientific Titles

Abstract

Ethical issues in scientific research are very complex, in the same manner as they are delicate. In most of the cases, the researcher needs to collect data from people, in unknown conditions and circumstances with huge social, ethnical, cultural, religious and gender pressure. The issue of ethics in scientific research especially in gaining academic titles is primarily a matter of social practice. We are all witnessing that many research papers are written for scientific titles, and they’re based on second and third hand resources, without any first hand research. 2/3 of Master and Doctoral candidates have gathered data from the projects where they did not participate; they have collected and used data from other known and unknown researchers. In Macedonia, the government has established a mechanism for saving and checking master and doctoral papers from 2012 (www. plagijati. com. m). This presents a good opportunity for checking the integrity and validity of the academic papers. The researcher’s responsibility represents a huge problem. This last decade the government prompted the massive enrollment in the universities as an idea with value, but recently the question whether this is becoming devaluated now is more than questionable? How much the race for profit is influencing the ethical aspect of the scientific and pedagogical research? At this point do the government and the universities thrive to provide quality in the higher education? How much are involved the principles of Salzburg in the third cycle of studies? In Macedonia and neighbor countries there is a huge competition for gaining academic titles. The number of Doctoral holders in Macedonia in 2013 increased for 50. 5 % compared to year 2012. By using the method of analyzing the documentation we’ll gather and interpret data related to research ethics and copyrights of the scientific papers.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s5p166