Ethics in Scholarly Communications: Intellectual Property and New Technologies.

This paper discusses professional ethical concerns for individuals conducting research in electronic collaborative environments. Existing professional codes of ethics were reviewed, and respected figures in the field of educational technology were engaged in conversations about ethics, professional communication, and new technologies. When professional ethics codes dealt with scholarly communications directly, it usually was with regard to ensuring professional competence, protecting the client, and protecting the profession. Each of these relate to electronic communications because new channels are available for interaction via the Internet that open up possibilities for representing and misrepresenting individual and organizational characteristics. The Code of Ethics for the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) offers some guidance in at least three areas relevant to the Internet: to protect privacy and personal integrity, to distinguish between personal and organizational views, and to give credit where credit is due. While organizations may have once controlled the proliferation of information, in the electronic age, each individual becomes an emissary, potentially influencing the views of others toward an organization. Another issue involves protecting the client and the profession against misrepresentation by individuals of their professional competence or organizational affiliation. Perhaps the most important finding is that there is an inherent conflict between giving credit, and protecting privacy; it is sometimes impossible to do both at the same time. Organizations must develop their own policies, and ask if existing ethical codes address the use of new "interactive" technologies. (AEF)