Ethical norms are not only common sense, but also different from laws. For example, in different industries: medicine, law, engineering and business, ethical standards regulate industry behaviors and related activities to meet their specific goals and build public trust. Ethical norms also serve scientific research and are applicable to people engaged in scientific research or other academic and creative activities. There is even an open glossary of commonly used scientific research ethics, which contains specific scientific research ethics and standards for studying these norms.

Because experiments involving animals or human volunteers involve complex and unique moral, legal, social and even political factors, the ethics of scientific research in animal care and use and the protection of human subjects have received special attention. It is very important to abide by ethical norms in scientific research. The main purpose of ethical norms is to promote the realization of research goals, such as pursuing knowledge and truth and avoiding mistakes. It is for this purpose to respect and maintain the originality of data in academic publishing ethics. Another important reason is to protect the rights and interests of participants and experimental animals.

There is a famous case about improper scientific research behavior that endangers people's lives: the case of Paul Macchiarini (reference/Macchiarini-scandal-transcendence-research-ethics-mark/);

Macchiarini, a surgeon, performed transplantation on three patients without sufficient and reliable preclinical research and the patients were not in critical condition, and two of them died after the operation.

In the accident investigation of the "star doctor" who was famous for his scientific research achievements before the scandal, Paul was found to have tampered with some data in his academic papers to show that his treatment was more successful.

During the investigation, the doctor was fired, and several directors of the medical college in Stockholm, Sweden, where he worked also resigned.

Different from publishing ethics, data tampering or academic fraud have potential effects, and the impact on subsequent scientific research is really worrying. Once the ethics of scientific research involving life is deviated, the consequences are likely to be direct and heavy. Of course, in addition to the biomedical field, which has always been concerned, different kinds of scientific research ethics problems also appear in the humanities and social sciences. Experiments involving special groups, such as children, people with developmental or cognitive disabilities, people adversely affected by institutions and homeless people, have also led to different ethical problems in scientific research.

Ethical norms are often informal rather than legal provisions, so a person's behavior may be legal but not ethical, which is sometimes difficult to draw a clear line between right and wrong. Because of this spontaneous nature, people will inevitably express their different opinions and views on ethics with their own values and life experiences. For example, doctors want to try different treatments for their patients, but they must also weigh the risk and responsibility ethics.

In scientific research, researchers must face some basic ethical requirements, such as the rationality of experimental scheme design involving people or animals; Avoid improper scientific research behavior; Abide by the rules and regulations of environment and safety; Abide by the relevant norms of original copyright and intellectual property rights; Or keep a confidentiality agreement signed by volunteers.

Many institutions and professional fields have adopted research ethics policies, among which ethics committees play an important role in setting high standards and ensuring compliance with these standards. Some influential policy makers involved in the study of ethics are: National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And the United States Department of Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Singapore's statement on research integrity, and so on. The Helsinki Declaration, the Hercynian Declaration of the World Medical Association, or the Nuremberg Code, has become the fundamental standard for the regulation of human experimental ethics. Although scandals have continued in recent years, on the whole, the scientific community's understanding of research ethics has improved significantly. The resource links listed above cover the most important aspects of research ethics and are made public in many academic institutions, aiming at providing educational courses for scientists to solve ethical problems.

The author also summarizes five rules that can and cannot be done in the study of ethical norms:

Discuss intellectual property honestly: The best way to avoid copyright is to discuss and reach an agreement on related issues at the initial stage of cooperation. APA's code of ethics, author's guide and patent policy also give good guidance on this issue.

Be aware of multiple roles: A scientist may play multiple roles in the research process. He may be a lab director who recruits student assistants, a tutor who teaches students, or a partner in a cooperative project. In order to avoid unreasonable distribution of students' workload by taking advantage of their position, it is best to write an agreement at the beginning of guiding students, listing their own guiding responsibilities and students' work responsibilities.

Abide by the informed consent rule: the informed consent rule ensures that each experimental individual fully understands the relevant risks and rights in the experiments he participates in. APA's code of ethics also lists the contents that the informed consent form needs to inform the participants:

The purpose, duration and process of the experiment;

Participants have the right to withdraw from the experiment at any time;

Reasonable and foreseeable potential hazards, any potential factors that may make people uncomfortable or have adverse effects;

Any anticipated scientific research benefits;

Confidentiality restrictions, such as data coding, data sharing, sharing and archiving, will undermine confidentiality;

Participate in the incentive mechanism;

Contacts that participants can contact if they have questions.

Respect confidentiality agreement and privacy: Different human experiments may need to know some private information of participants to different degrees in order to screen or conduct experiments. Before the experiment officially begins, we can obtain the necessary information by step-by-step interview or questionnaire survey. The confidentiality agreement shall also state the knowledge of the participants and the above rights. At the same time, researchers need to discuss confidentiality restrictions and related legal provisions with participants. Other desirable measures, such as:

Take practical safety measures to store confidential records in safe and reliable places;

Before the research begins, we should consider the possible confidentiality restrictions caused by data sharing;

Understand the security restrictions of the Internet.

Learn to use moral and ethical resources.

For researchers, one of the best ways to avoid and solve ethical dilemmas is to know what their ethical obligations are and which resources are publicly available.