Ethics in scientific publication

The principles that govern the ethics of scientific publications are no different than for any endeavor: complete and accurate reporting and appropriate attribution to the contributions of others. However, as always, ?the devil is in the details.? The ethical responsibilities of authors and reviewers are sufficiently important and complex that the editors of the American Chemical Society journals have developed a detailed document outlining these responsibilities. (This document, ?Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research? is presented in Appendix 1-1.) The purpose of this chapter is not to duplicate this document, but rather to discuss some of the important underlying principles and situations that often arise.