The Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse (ESENCe) Beta Project released “Ethics Day: Engaging Librarians in the Responsible Conduct of Research,” a report summarizing the main points of discussion from a workshop convened to advance knowledge and practice for ethics among library and information scientists. Ethics Day sought to identify opportunities for library science involvement in the development of appropriate ethics education across disciplines. The workshop was designed to provide librarians with new knowledge about research ethics and to demonstrate possible roles for libraries as institutions consider new ethics trainings or requirements.
Ethics Day extended findings from a 2009 ESENCe workshop, “Ethics in Science and Engineering: Redefining Tools and Resources, ” which explored the potential to leverage the university’s role as a locus of education and mentoring for ethics and RCR in science and engineering and the potential and limitations of digital tools, including social media, for supporting such growth. A report from the Redefining Tools and Resources workshop is available online.
The ESENCe beta site project was a digital repository of materials on ethics and the responsible and ethical conduct of research in science and engineering. It partnered the National Center for Digital Government; the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries; the Science, Technology and Society Initiative; and the Center for Public Policy and Administration. ESENCe was developed in response to the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Act, which required that proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF) have “a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers participating in the proposed research project” (Sec 7009). While NSF has always encouraged ethical conduct of research, the America COMPETES Act made this requirement explicit and created an opportunity to better compile and disseminate ethics research results and related education materials. Accordingly, the project sought to examine and test the potential of information science to provide effective tools to coordinate materials from across disciplines and to develop a web-based portal that would connect faculty and researchers to the best available materials to promote ethics in research, training, and practice. More information abotu ESENCe is available at its website.