Authorial Ethics: How Writers Abuse Their Calling

Abstract

Scholars, researchers, novelists, journalists – indeed, all writers – are adjured to articulate their thoughts in conformance with the conventions and rules of their respective disciplines. Sometimes, though, carelessness or ambition seduces the unwary and they falsify, fabricate, or plagiarize data or text; these formal instances of misconduct are merely the most blatant and harmful of the many ethical abrogations that can occur. This article offers theoretical grounding and details of specific cases from the humanities (life-writing), social sciences (psychology), and hard sciences (biomedicine).