Article to Critique: from Ethics in Engineering

From: ETHICS IN ENGINEERING

By: Mike W. Martin and Ronald Schinzinger

McGraw Hill International Edition, 2005

RESEARCH INTEGRITY
Research in engineering takes place in many settings, including universities,
government labs, and corporations. The exact moral requirements vary somewhat,
according to the applicable guidelines and regulations, but the truthfulness responsibility
applies in all settings. Research ethics has many facets such as: defining research integrity
and misconduct, conducting and reporting experiments, protecting research subjects,
giving and claiming credits and reporting misconduct. Truthfulness is important in research
because it aims in discovering and promulgating truth. Integrity in research is promoting
excellence (high quality) in these activities, and this positive emphasis on excellence
should be kept paramount in thinking about honesty in research. Often there are pressures
in researchers to varnish the truth when competing for personal recognition, not only
because it brings ego recognition but also it might win a job, promotion and income. Fraud
of the following type occurs:
Plagiarism, is intentionally or negligently submitting other’s work as ones’ own. In
research it is important to acknowledge the work of others, thus, the credits was given to
the original author not the one who uses the context and a reference is acceptable. In a
novel, where footnoting is not necessary a brief quotation without quotation marks might
be an acceptable “literary allusion”, but in an essay by a student or professor it would be
considered theft.
Steps on how to critique this article
1. Read the article thoroughly.
2. Point out the important words.
3. Write down your queries.
4. Jot down the thoughts that come in your mind.
5. Once you have read the article thoroughly, prepare an outline of your thoughts on
what the article is all about.
6. Point out the hypothesis/ objectives and explain why it is relevant to your topic.
Then point out your statement which will be main idea of your critique. Sum up
your main points, your idea focuses on giving the reader an overall overview of the
article.
7. Your analysis describes any problem in your mind upon reading. Be careful not to
jump from one argument to the other. Argue one at a time, doing this your paper
flows well and easy to read.
8. Conclusion. Your critique should be end up with your conclusion and your reaction
to the article.