Ethics in scientific research is an issue appearing periodically in the news… and often not in a good way. Perhaps some ethical lapse has led to a field’s struggles with millions of dollars worth of effort lost. Or perhaps someone falsified results and misled the public. Or governments might exploit research that was supposed to benefit humanity and redirected it to harming people.

All these fall under the headline of “Responsible Conduct in Research,” more colloquially known as RCR. The elite National Academies in the US provide short, well-reasoned guides to large, pressing interdisciplinary issues confronting science. This work, in its third edition, provides a brief summary of ethical issues involved with scientific research along with case studies to explore them in more detail.

Good science runs on maximizing knowledge and skills, but is accepted only with public trust. Enduring social values of respect, honesty, and lack of bias lead to longstanding contribution. Ethical shortcuts are usually caught but cause systemic inefficiencies. Lapses can result in hurt patients or end users, failed careers, and misspent effort by the field. This book identifies 13 areas where today’s scientists should spend time meditating upon in order to protect the good will of the public and of their colleagues.

This book is in its third edition, with the first two coming out in 1989 and 1995. In a field like ethics, the content does not evolve at a dramatic pace, but it does evolve with time. New events lead to new insights. This updated version continues to include a number of case studies with questions to engage with issues intellectually. All the issues are succinctly covered.

The appropriate audience for this book consists of graduate students, early researchers, and even established scientists. This work is too concise for an undergraduate textbook, where making the material “come to life” is more important. Addressed researchers are in the hard sciences, engineering, or medical fields; the social sciences and humanities are not a focal audience. The human aspects and effects of studying nature certainly need to be heeded. Ethical books, excellently and concisely presented by the National Academies, help us make better, more efficient decisions to move science and society forward. ( )