Natural Resource Assessment and Analysis

Scientific Code of Ethics

Ethical Conduct for Research: A Code of Scientific Ethics

By Marcia Patton-Mallory, Kathleen Franzreb, Charles Carll, and Richard Cline

The USDA Forest Service recently developed and adopted a code of ethical conduct for scientific research and development. The code addresses issues related to research misconduct, such as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research or in reporting research results, as well as issues related to professional misconduct, such as authorship practices, conflict of interest, and responsible treatment of data and resources. The adoption of a code of scientific ethics is expected to foster fairness, accuracy, and integrity in the conduct and reporting of scientific research within the agency.

• Scientific Code of Ethics (6/20/2000) PDF