Publications

The seventh volume in our series, Research Ethics: Cases and Commentaries, is now available and is focused on the social sciences. These cases were developed with our latest work last summer with a group of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in our NSF-sponsored Graduate Research Ethics Education project. The cases were written by participants with additional commentaries provided by workshop faculty.

Volume Seven includes cases dealing with research on groups, research with indigenous peoples, encountering criminal behavior in the course of research, invasion of privacy, use of students in research, the IRB and social science research, conflicting roles of researchers, and research on the internet.

The first six volumes, with the same format as Volume Seven, focus on cases in the natural sciences and engineering. The cost of each volume is $17, including shipping within the United States. The set of seven volumes is available for $115.00.

To go to a description of the entire 7-set series, click here. To order, please print and complete the order form here in PDF format, which requires Adobe's free Acrobat Reader.

Oxford University Press Series in Practical and Professional Ethics

The Association publishes, in cooperation with Oxford University Press, the Practical and Professional Ethics Series. The new series editor is Robert Audi, University of Nebraska; Co-Editor is Patrick E. Murphy, Notre Dame. The series includes:

Practical Ethics: A Collection of Addresses and Essays, Henry Sidgwick, with an introduction by Sissela Bok, 1998
Thinking Like an Engineer: Studies in the Ethics of a Profession, Michael Davis, 1998
Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and Disagreement, edited by Stephen Macedo, 1999
From Social Justice to Criminal Justice: Poverty and the Administration of Criminal Law, edited by William C. Heffernan and John Kleinig, 2000
Meaningful Work: Rethinking Professional Ethics, Mike W. Martin, 2000
Conflict of Interest in the Professions, Edited by Michael Davis and Andrew Stark, 2001
The Price of Truth: How Money Affects the Norms of Science, David B. Resnik, 2007

For a more complete description of each book, please see below.

Association members receive a 20% discount on all books in the Oxford Series. To place an order, call the Oxford University Press at 800-451-7556 and identify yourself as a member of the Association.

Practical Ethics: A Collection of Addresses and Essays, Henry Sidgwick, with an introduction by Sissela Bok, 1998

A classic work in the field of practical and professional ethics, this collection of nine essays by English philosopher and educator Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900) was first published in 1898 and forms a vital complement to Sidgwick’s major treatise on moral theology, The Methods of Ethics. Reissued here as the first volume in a new series sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, the book is composed chiefly of addresses to members of two ethical societies that Sidgwick helped to found in Cambridge and London in the 1880s. Clear, taut, and lively, these essays demonstrate the compassion and calm reasonableness that Sidgwick brought to all his writings. Introduction by noted ethicist Sissela Bok.

Oxford Series, Volume II

Thinking Like an Engineer: Studies in the Ethics of a Profession, Michael Davis, 1998

Michael Davis, a leading figure in the study of professional ethics, offers here both a compelling exploration of engineering ethics and a philosophical analysis of engineering as a profession. After putting engineering in historical perspective, Davis turns to the Challenger space shuttle disaster to consider the complex relationship between engineering ideals and contemporary engineering practice. Here, Davis examines how social organization and technical requirements define how engineers should (and presumably do) think. Later chapters test his analysis of engineering judgement and autonomy empirically, engaging a range of social science research including a study of how engineers and managers work together in ten different companies.

Oxford Series, Volume III

Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and Disagreement, edited by Stephen Macedo, 1999

The banner of deliberative democracy is attracting increasing numbers of supporters, in both the world's older and newer democracies. The effort to renew democratic politics is widely seen as a reaction to the dominance of liberal constitutionalism. Many questions surround the new project, however. What does deliberative democracy stand for? What difference would deliberative practices make in the real world of political conflict and public policy design? What is the relationship between deliberative politics and liberal constitutional arrangements? In Deliberative Politics, an all-star cast of political, legal and moral commentators criticize, extend or provide alternatives to the hopeful model of democratic deliberations proposed by Dennis Thompson and Amy Gutmann in Democracy and Disagreement. Individual essays discuss the value and limits of moral deliberation in politics and take up practical policy issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and health care reform. The book concludes with a thoughtful response from Gutmann and Thompson.

Oxford Series, Volume IV

From Social Justice to Criminal Justice: Poverty and the Administration of Criminal Law, edited by William C. Heffernan and John Kleinig, 2000

The economically deprived come into contact with the criminal court system in sorely disproportionate numbers. Should economic deprivation then figure in the administration of criminal law? And if so, how? This collection of original, insightful essays explores such practical issues as heightened vulnerability, indigent representation, and rotten social background defenses; whether it is possible and warranted for deprivation to be accepted as a claim mitigating criminal liability; and whether and how the processes of criminal adjudication should be used to advance agendas of social justice. Contributors include legal and political philosophers Philip Pettit, George Fletcher and Jeremy Waldron.

Oxford Series, Volume V

As commonly understood, professional ethics consists of shared duties and episodic dilemmas. In this pioneering new study, Martin challenges this "consensus paradigm" as he rethinks professional ethics to include personal commitments and ideals. Using examples from medicine, law, teaching, journalism, engineering, business and ministry, he explores how personal commitments motivate, guide and give meaning to work. By taking personal commitments seriously, he vastly expands professional ethics to include neglected issues in moral psychology, character and the virtues, self-fulfillment and self-betrayal, and the interplay of private and professional life. He begins with an exploration of the roles played by personal ideals in giving meaning to work, interpreting professional responsibilities, and inspiring voluntary service. He then discusses the ideals of caring about clients and professional distance and takes up issues surrounding the interplay of personal ideals and respect for organizational authority. Finally, he examines three dangers: character-linked violations of shared professional norms, betrayal of personal ideals, and loss of balance that causes burnout and harm to families.

Oxford Series, Volume VI

Conflict of Interest in the Professions, Edited by Michael Davis and Andrew Stark, 2001

Conflicts of interest pose special problems for the professions. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest can undermine essential trust between professional and public. This volume is a comprehensive and accessible guide to the ramifications and problems associated with this important issue. It contains fifteen new essays by noted scholars, and covers topics in law, medicine, journalism, engineering, financial services, and others.

The Price of Truth: How Money Affects the Norms of Science, David B. Resnik, 2007

Modern science is big business. Governments, universities, and corporations have invested billions of dollars in scientific and technological research in the hope of obtaining power and profit. For the most part, this investment has benefited science and society, leading to new discoveries, inventions, disciplines, specialties, jobs, and career opportunities. However, there is a dark side to the influx of money into science. Unbridled pursuit of financial gain in science can undermine scientific norms, such as objectivity, honesty, openness, respect for research participants, and social responsibility.
In The Price of Truth, David B. Resnik examines some of the important and difficult questions resulting from the financial and economic aspects of modern science. How does money affect scientific research? Have scientists become entrepreneurs bent on making money instead of investigators searching for the truth? How does the commercialization of research affect the public's perception of science? Can scientists prevent money from corrupting the research enterprise? What types of rules, policies, and guidelines should scientists adopt to prevent financial interests from adversely affecting research and the public's opinion of science?
Resnik investigates and analyzes the relationship between the pursuit of financial gain and pursuit of knowledge. He considers how money can affect the conduct of scientists, universities, government agencies, and corporations. He also explores how moral, social, and political values affect public and private funding of research. Finally, he proposes some policies for controlling, regulating, and monitoring financial interests in research and for counteracting money's corrupting effects on science.

Research Ethics: Cases and Commentaries

How to Survive Graduate School and Start your Career in Science/Engineering

A Handbook for Graduate Research Ethics Education by Graduate Research Ethics Education Participants. (2004). This monograph contains essays written by eighteen participants of the Graduate Research Ethics Education Project. There are essays on relationships of graduate students to advisors, mentors, faculty committees, academic research groups, and external collaborators. Also included are essays on research practices including, authorship, data ownership, interpretation and modeling, research with human participants, use of hazardous materials, peer review processes and ethical issues in teaching, industrial collaborations and handling misconduct. There is a final section on science and society. (Association for Practical and Professional Ethics 2004.) This handbook was produced with the support of the National Science Foundation (Grants 9421897 and 9817880).

This Graduate Handbook is available for $10.00 each. To order, please print and complete the order form here in PDF format, which requires Adobe's free Acrobat Reader, or you may call 812-855-6450 or email to appe@indiana.edu.

Preface

Ethical issues surround and permeate science. Graduate students encounter these issues in a variety of ways - in the human relationships they develop as part of their professional training, in the everyday decisions they make regarding their research, in learning and coming to grips with the practices of science, in thinking about the choices they (and other scientists) make about their research and its effects on the world.

While much has been written about science and even about the ethical issues arising in and around science, little has been written specifically for graduate students in the sciences and engineering. Indeed, very few resources (written or otherwise) are available to help graduate students to navigate the ethical dilemmas they face and to make sense of their experiences in graduate school and after.

This handbook is an attempt to fill the gap. It is written by graduate students for graduate students. While it is intended especially for students who are just beginning graduate school, to prepare them for what they might encounter, it may also be helpful to more seasoned graduate students who are looking for assistance in understanding the graduate school environment.

The handbook is the product of a project that began in 1996 when the National Science Foundation's Program on Ethics and Values (in the Societal Dimensions of Engineering, Science and Technology Program) funded a proposal for workshops training graduate students in research ethics. The project, conducted by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, aimed to provide training in research ethics to graduate students in science and engineering so as to reach them early in their careers, in the hope that the early involvement and training would have a lasting effect on their attitudes and interests throughout their careers.

From 1996-2003, graduate students with excellent records in their fields of specialization and an interest in ethics attended a five-day summer workshop at Indiana University and a follow-up meeting during the subsequent year. A second NSF grant allowed all the participants to be brought together as an alumni group so as to facilitate development of a community of scientists and engineers interested in research ethics. The idea for this handbook emerged from the alumni group.

Developing Relationships: How Ethics Centers Can Succeed with Raising Funds

The Association’s Sixteenth Annual Ethics Center Colloquium, “Developing Relationships: How Ethics Centers Can Succeed with Raising Funds,” was convened by Aine Donovan, Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics, Dartmouth College. It was designed as a sequel to last year’s Colloquium, “Buy-in: Everything but Money!” This monograph includes three essays drawn from the colloquium. I want to acknowledge Glenda Murray for applying her editing skills to this set of essays.

It is the Association’s extraordinarily good fortune to number among its members the three presenters in this year’s colloquium whose background and talent are so well-suited for this topic. Stuart D. Yoak is the Executive Director, Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values, Washington University. He is a philosopher with the unusual experience of having spent five years as director of Foundation Relations in the Alumni Development Office at Washington University. Kenneth W. Goodman, Co-Director, Ethics Programs, University of Miami, directs one of the most collaborative ethics centers in the Association with extremely rich programming, which has recently received a million dollar gift from a private donor in recognition and support of its work. James D. Yunker, President and CEO of Smith Beers Yunker & Company, Inc. with branches in the United States and the United Kingdom, provides fundraising services for nonprofit organizations. His doctoral work focused on “why people give.”

In “Developing Relationships: How Ethics Centers Succeed with Fundraising,” Stuart D. Yoak stresses that the key to successful fundraising requires that one recognize the importance of careful strategic planning and systematically carrying out that plan. That strategic plan must include building and sustaining relationships with faculty and students, administrators, and the institution’s development office. Yoak provides valuable insights on how development offices work and how the ethics center can use that understanding in its fundraising efforts. He differentiates the approaches used for individual donors, corporations and foundations and for annual giving, capital campaigns, major gifts and planned giving. Finally, he provides helpful insights in building and sustaining donor relations, including identification of donor prospects, and the cultivation, solicitation, acknowledgement and sustaining of those relationships.

Kenneth Goodman, in his essay, “On the Growth of Ethics Programs,” explicates the senses in which an ethics center’s mission and activity can both manifest and contribute to the highest mission of the university and, as such, why they can make a case for the university’s support. He makes the case for why those same qualities of a center can be attractive to donors. Goodman underscores what ethics centers need to do to merit that support from both the university and outside donors and stresses particularly the need to maintain intellectual credibility in all that they do.

“The Practicalities of Funding Your Ethics Center,” is the focus of James Yunker’s remarks. He provides some perspective on the sources of gifts and stresses that individuals are overwhelmingly the single most important source of gifts in the United States. He discusses how to develop a compelling case for persuading individuals to give to the ethics center. He then discusses fundamental rules for cultivating individual donors and identifies some of the ethical principles to observe in the fundraising process.

Buy-in: Everything but Money!

“Buy-in: Everything but Money!” was the focus of the Association’s Fifteenth Annual Ethics Center Colloquium. David Ozar, Loyola University of Chicago, organized and convened the colloquium and we wish to thank him for his outstanding organization of the colloquium. I also want to thank Glenda Murray of the Poynter Center for her careful editing of the essays in this series.

Someone recently asked how the Association came to include ethics centers as part of the membership of the Association and the Ethics Center Colloquium as part of the Annual Meeting. The suggestion was that the connection between ethics centers and the concerns and mission of the Association was purely contingent.

I was surprised by the question. As the essays in this monograph will illustrate, ethics centers, particularly at academic institutions, are frequently a major stimulus on campus and in the broader community. Ethics Centers can focus scholarly and educational effort on practical and professional ethics and serve as a resource for faculty across disciplines and professions for scholarship and teaching in practical ethics.

One might think that this year’s theme of getting “buy-in” from the center’s constituents can be an issue for new centers, but is limited to them. However, for an established center, there is a temptation and a danger in thinking that their longevity ensures their visibility and awareness in the minds of their constituents and hence that the center already has and continues to have “buy-in” from those constituents. But campuses are dynamic. Faculty and administrators are constantly joining and leaving the institution or taking on new responsibilities within the organization. New faculty and administrators may have no awareness of the center and its mission or how it might serve as a resource for them or their programs or the university mission. Hence the process of “Buy-in” needs to be continually renewed. Sometime a center refocuses its mission and that too requires “buy-in.” These points are illustrated in the very practical essays below by four ethics center directors.

Susan Poser , Director, Robert J. Kutak Center for the Teaching and Study of Applied Ethics, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, illustrates the latter point in her essay, “A Fledgling Center’s Three Strategies for Faculty and Administration Buy-in.” Her center, in existence since 1985, decided to refocus its mission. The center did so by soliciting input from distinguished faculty and administrators and using that to shape a mission that matched the current needs of departments, faculty and administration for help in practical and professional ethics education. In this essay she discusses three strategies she found successful for obtaining buy-in from the center’s constituents while reshaping the center’s mission.

In “Buy-in Through Events Co-Sponsored with Various Divisions,” Keith Goree, Director, the Applied Ethics Institute, St. Petersburg College, describes how his college’s long running ethics program and their more recent Applied Ethics Institute overcame a long history of faculty resistance to the ethics program by building strong bridges and partnerships with other academic programs, at relatively low cost. The vehicle used to achieve this was the ethics forum, which he describes in some detail. Goree also identifies other collaborative projects which have created partnerships outside the college with the county school system, the library, and the county family services center. All of his ideas are easily portable to other centers.

The twenty year history of Utah Valley State College’s highly successful Ethics Across the Curriculum program is discussed by Elaine Englehardt, Professor of Philosophy in “Ethics Across the Curriculum: Inclusive Planning,” as an illustration of the use of education to gain faculty and student buy-in for the program. She discusses the role that conferences, workshops, summer seminars, the use of web sites, educational television, radio broadcasts and writing of case studies in ethics by faculty in various disciplines has played in strengthening the commitment of faculty and administration to the teaching of ethics across disciplines. She also indicates the level of support required to sustain this initiative.

Daniel E.Wueste, Director, Robert J. Rutland Institute for Ethics, Clemson University, in “Cultivating Constituents On and Off Campus,” illustrates with a number of remarkable cases how developing and maintaining relationships grounded in shared interests and commitment can go quite far in establishing buy-in that manifests itself in active support. Thus the center’s work with faculty in ethics across the curriculum workshops created a level of buy-in that provided the support needed to include ethical judgment as a distributed competency in the university’s new general education curriculum. As he says “one thing leads to another”; in this case buy-in leads to projects which increase and expand buy-in, both on and off campus. He also reminds us that sometimes the ethics center need not necessarily be the driver of an ethics initiative but simply alert enough and nimble enough to jump on a train that has already left the station as illustrated by the center’s work with a university initiative on undergraduate research. Wueste’s lessons can be used with profit by other centers.

Mission , Vision and Strategic Planning

The theme of the Association’s Thirteenth Annual Ethics Center Colloquium was “ Mission, Vision and Strategic Planning.” David Ozar, Director of the Center for Ethics and Social Justice, Loyola University of Chicago, organized and convened the Colloquium. In this monograph, three seasoned center administrators share their views on this process. In “ Mission as the Guiding Force in Creating and Sustaining an Ethics Center,” Aine Donovan, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics, Dartmouth College makes the case for a clearly articulated mission statement. She distinguishes between visionary and strategic senses of mission; discusses the development of a center mission statement and (in the case of a college or university center), its relationship to the larger mission of the university and the evaluation of the mission statement.

Carol Roup , Associate Director, Center for Ethics and Social Justice, Loyola University Chicago in her piece “The Strategic Planning Process and its Product,” provides a detailed “How To” map for the strategic planning process and product. She provides a level of detail and clear explication of the process at a level of practicality that will be very useful for directors. She discusses the nature of strategic planning, reasons for strategic planning and the need for developing a “plan” for the planning process itself. She then discusses in detail five stages of the planning process and the benefits of each stage as well as the benefits of the final strategic plan and the planning experience.

Elizabeth Kiss , Director, Kenan Institute of Ethics, Duke University reflects in “How Strategic Planning Helps an Ethics Center,” on the seven ways the strategic planning can help an ethics center. She then offers words of advice on the buy-in from stakeholders; managing expectations; and sharing, using and marketing the strategic plan.

Ethics Centers and Conflict of Interest

Introduction
Brian Schrag, Executive Secretary

"Ethics Centers and Conflict of Interest" was the theme of the Association's Twelfth Annual Ethics Center Colloquium at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. This year's Colloquium was convened by David T. Ozar, Director, Center for Ethics and Social Justice, Loyola University of Chicago. We wish to thank him for his excellent work in organizing the Colloquium.

The Monograph includes "Conflicts of Interest at Ethics Centers: A Primer,""Indirect Benefits, Conflicts of Interest, and Problems with Disclosure Policies,""Eek! They're Everywhere: Ethics Centers, Ethics Consulting and Conflicts of Interest"; and "In Jeopardy: Where are Conflicts of Interest? They are Everywhere, but that's OK."

Michael Davis, Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology, sets the stage for the Colloquium with his essay, "Conflict of Interest at Ethics Centers: A Primer." Davis is the co-author of a volume on conflict of interest in the Association's Practical and Professional Series. (Michael Davis and Andrew Stark, Eds., Conflict of Interest in the Professions, Oxford University Press, 2001.) In his essay, Davis sets out with great clarity a definition of conflict of interest and discusses some of the ethical problems raised by such conflict, ways of dealing with conflict of interest, including escape, disclosure and managing such conflicts. He makes important distinctions between political, actual, and apparent conflict of interest. Davis illustrates these points with examples drawn from ethics centers.

In "Indirect Benefits, Conflicts of Interest and Problems with Disclosure Policies," Lisa S. Parker, Center for Bioethics and Health Law, University of Pittsburgh, extends Davis' discussion by reflecting on her own center's efforts to work out a policy of disclosure to address conflict of interest. She draws candidly on discussions by her center colleagues as they attempted to work out a practical policy. She relates, as well, the scholarly research on effects of a disclosure policy on a center and its members. Parker notes a distinction between conflict of interest arising from external funding and that arising from internal sources. She reports on the growing concern at her center on the silencing effects of internal conflict of interest on ethicists' judgment regarding identification of issues of ethical concern, scholarly work done in such areas, and actual positions taken on those issues.

Christopher Meyers, Director, Kegley Institute of Ethics, California State University, Bakersfield, discusses why ethics centers face conflicts of interest in his essay, "Eek! They're Everywhere: Ethics Centers, Ethics Consulting and Conflicts of Interest." He suggests that it is because there is no clear consensus on the role of ethics centers and because ethics consulting is often in the mix of the center activities. Meyers argues that a central consulting function of ethics centers is to assist clients in making better ethical choices as well as creating institutional conditions more conducive to making sound ethical choices. That requires that the consultant gain an "insider" perspective of the client's situation, yet maintain critical distance, while being paid directly or indirectly for the consulting. Hence, he argues, conflict of interest is embedded in the ethics center's consulting activity. Meyers suggests several ways for a center to manage conflict of interest.

In his essay, "In Jeopardy: Where are Conflicts of Interest? They are Everywhere but That's OK," Arthur Zucker, Director, Institute for Applied and Professional Ethics, Ohio University, focuses particularly on university ethics centers with a mission to promote reasoned discussion of controversial topics. He argues that whether pursuit of that mission can be judged to result in conflict of interest requires judging the motives for the center's actions. To assess such conflicts he offers an analysis of conflict of interest that draws on Harry Frankfurt's distinction between first and second order desires.

Identifying Funding Sources for Ethics Centers

This Monograph includes four essays by ethics center directors, originally presented at the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Association. The topics addressed include: "Funding an Ethics Center", "What Grant Money Is There for Ethics and How to Compete for It", Building Links to Regional Corporations and Organizations", and "Creating Revenue by Selling Ethics Education and Consulting Services."

The 2004 Ethics Center Colloquium marks the eleventh year for the Association's Ethics Center Colloquium at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. The Colloquium, usually attended by 60-80 ethics center directors, provides a rich forum for the exchange of ideas and concerns of directors of ethics centers and those considering the start up of a center.

This year's Colloquium was no exception. "Identifying Funding Sources for Ethics Centers" was convened by David T. Ozar and appropriately revisits a theme that the Colloquium has addressed over the years. Few topics are, understandably, of more concern to ethics centers.

This Colloquium draws on presenters from medium and larger public and private universities in larger metropolitan areas. Although that perspective may somewhat limit its usefulness to centers at small colleges and universities in smaller cities, there is much that any center director can glean from the presentations in this Colloquium.

Kirk O. Hanson directs the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, one of the centers at the upper end in terms of the size of its operating budget. That center has not always been so well funded, and Hanson provides a useful historical perspective on the development of such a center. He also provides a useful thorough checklist of funding sources. Hanson sketches one account of stages of center development and suggests a unique insight on the relation of the stages of center development to appropriate funding sources. Not all centers may recognize their stages of development in this account, but since he links development to changes in mission, centers with different missions will still profit from his observations.

Lawrence M. Hinman, director of the Values Institute at the University of San Diego, shares sage general advice for directors as they search for funding sources as well as more specific advice on identifying funding sources and developing relationships which can maximize chances of success in grant acquisitions.

The last two presenters focus on more specific ways of generating center income. Richard H. Toenjes of the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, illustrates how the building of long term relationships with local and regional institutions by serving their educational needs can lead to funding support for the center. David T. Ozar, Director of Loyola University of Chicago's Center for Ethics and Social Justice, provides a candid look at the challenges of developing center revenue by offering ethics consulting services to local institutions.

"Funding an Ethics Center"
Kirk O. Hanson, Executive Director, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

"What Grant Money Is There for Ethics and How to Compete for It"
Lawrence M. Hinman, Director, The Values Institute, University of San Diego

"Building Links to Regional Corporations and Organizations"
Richard H. Toenjes, Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

"Creating Revenue by Selling Ethics Education and Consulting Services"
David Ozar, Director, Center for Ethics and Social Justice, Philosophy, Loyola University of Chicago

Benchmarks of Ethics Center Excellence

This monograph includes the remarks of twelve ethics center directors presented at the Ethics Center Colloquium at the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Association. Topics addressed include: "Mission Excellence of a Center", "Programming Excellence", "Funding Strength", "Collaboration", "Board Member Selection", "Staffing Excellence."

Ethics centers in the United States began to appear about thirty years ago. Since that time we have seen a surprisingly rapid multiplication of ethics centers. The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics membership currently includes over 100 ethics centers in the United States and abroad. These centers are richly diverse. Many centers are associated with universities; some are freestanding. Some focus on a single profession; others focus across professions. Some aim mainly at internal constituents; others serve primarily external constituents.

Ethics centers have been in existence long enough that we can now observe ethics centers at all stages of development; there is, if you will, a kind of laboratory of ecological succession in the development of ethics centers. Centers have also existed long enough that they are now experiencing a need for some kind of internal or external evaluation. The first generation of center directors is now retiring. Many of these directors have long track records and much accumulated wisdom regarding the start up and nurturing of ethics centers. There are, at the same time, new directors eager to tap the experience of the first generation of center directors. All this points to a need for more systematic sharing of what can be learned from previous experience and guidance for more systematic evaluation of ethics centers. This monograph is an initial step in efforts to address these needs.

Each year, as part of its Annual Meeting, the Association organizes a half-day Ethics Center Colloquium for ethics center directors and those interested in developing centers. The aim is to provide directors with an opportunity to share common concerns, ideas and wisdom regarding ethics center operation.

This past year, at the Ethics Center Colloquium, I invited seasoned directors of twelve ethics centers to share their perspective and experience on some benchmarks of ethics center excellence. The benchmarks included excellence in mission, programming, funding strength, collaborative efforts, board excellence, and staffing. These benchmarks are not an exhaustive set, but they are essential to center excellence.

For each topic, a director of a center at a large institution was paired with a director at a smaller institution. In their observations one will find specific ideas on developing a mission statement, programming ideas, values of collaborative effort, advice on board development and the importance of staff development. One will find suggestions for relatively untapped opportunities; local radio and television resources may be underutilized by most centers, for example. One will also note how these areas are interrelated. Clarity of mission affects staffing excellence; funding strength can affect both mission and programming; collaborative efforts and board development can, in turn, affect funding.

Every center has its own story; there are no simple or uniform recipes for developing an ethics center or maintaining its excellence. Nevertheless, there is a great deal of transferable wisdom in the experiences of these centers and directors.

Introduction
Brian Schrag, Executive Secretary

Mission Excellence
"Developing the Mission Statement"
Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, Director, Dr. James Dale Ethics Center, Youngstown State University
"Mission: the Tip of the Iceberg"
John R. Wilcox, Vice President for Mission, Acting Director, Center for Professional Ethics, Manhattan College

Programming Excellence
"Integrating Ethics across the Curriculum"
Lawrence M. Hinman, Director, The Values Institute, University of San Diego
"Programming Excellence"
Marc Marenco, Director, Pacific Institute for Ethics and Social Policy, Pacific University

Funding Strength
"Funding Strength"
Bruce Green, Director, Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, Fordham University School of Law
"Beg, Borrow and Ask Nicely: Funding a Small Ethics Center"
Christopher Meyers, Director, Kegley Institute of Ethics, California State University, Bakersfield

Excellence in Collaboration
"Excellence in Collaboration"
Aine Donovan, Executive Director, and Ronald M. Green, Director, Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics, Dartmouth College
"Excellence in Collaboration"
David R. Keller, Director, Center for the Study of Ethics, Utah Valley State College

Board Excellence
"Board Excellence"
David T. Ozar, Director, Center for Ethics and Social Justice, Loyola University of Chicago
"Board Excellence in Ethics Center in Smaller Academic Institutions"
Philip A. Muntzel, Director, Center for Ethics and Public Life, King's College

Staff Excellence
"Staffing Excellence in Ethics Centers"
James DuBois, PhD Program Director, Center for Health Care Ethics, Saint Louis University
"Staffing Excellence in Ethics Centers"
David H. Smith, Director, Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions, Indiana University

Ethically Speaking

Other Publications and Journals

APPE Publications

Profiles in Ethics -- Annual publication of member ethics centers, with descriptions. Available for $5.00 each or free with membership.

Member Directory -- Annual directory of Association members. Available for $5.00 each or free with membership.

Program and Abstracts from the Annual Meeting -- while supplies last. Available for $5.00 each.

The first quarterly issue of the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics (JERHRE, pronounced Jerry) will be published by UC Press in March.

At recent professional meetings where JERHRE has been discussed, both Institutional Review Board (IRB) members and researchers claimed it as (at last) a journal that gives them voice in debates about what is ethical. Obviously both contingents feel that evidence-based ethical problem solving is long overdue. (JERHRE is the only journal in the field of human research ethics dedicated exclusively to empirical research.) With the advent of evidence-based medicine a few decades ago, many beliefs about best practices were thrown into question. The pundits are predicting that JERHRE will have a similar effect. For details about the special features and subscription information, please see www.csueastbay.edu/JERHRE.

Organizational Ethics: Healthcare, Business, and Policy Journal special issue on organizational ethics component of ACGME Outcome Project now available.

The Outcome Project was initiated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in response to concerns that physicians were not being trained to deal with the complexities of a changing healthcare environment. The project was launched in 1999 with the identification of six areas of expertise or competencies that residency training programs are expected to teach and monitor, and it details what types of expertise and obligations are required in each of the six competencies.

Academic medical centers are currently scrambling to understand and implement these competencies. The ACGME leaves the specifics of implementation and measurement up to the individual residency program, so there is no universal standard or "best practice" that individual programs can measure their results against. This is expected to change when the project begins its fourth phase in 2011.

Two of the six competencies are directly related to organizational ethics: the competencies on "professionalism" and "systems-based practice." These two competencies are the subject matter of a special issue of Organizational Ethics, which is addressed to medical educators, physicians, administrators, and residents who are interested in the appropriate development and implementation of the ACGME competencies.

Ann E. Mills, Msc(Econ), MBA, Patricia H. Werhane, PhD, and Matthew K. Wynia, MD, MPH, begin the issue with "Introduction and Foreword to the Special Issue on ACGME Requirements for Residents on Professionalism and Systems-Based Practice." Lisa H. Newton, PhD, describes the differing concepts of professionalism associated with medicine and business in "Professionalism in Medicine and in Business: In Search of Organizational Ethics." Edward M. Spencer, MD, and Rebecca Bigoney, MD, examine the concept of medicine more closely in "Toward a New Concept of Professionalism: Being a Physician in Today's Healthcare System."

In "Business Practices, Ethical Principles, and Professionalism," Ann E. Mills, Msc(Econ) and Mary V. Rorty, PhD, address questions of what business practices are, and why goals may not produce desired outcomes in healthcare systems. Evan G. DeRenzo, PhD, in "Individuals, Systems, and Professional Behavior," focuses on the healthcare organization as a system, and Paul Alexander Clark, MPA, in "Can Organizational Ethics Programs Influence Management Initiatives?" describes how competing obligations can be weighed within the context of a system. To close, David T. Ozar, PhD, introduces an educational program that details the ACGME outcomes and the barriers he sees to producing these outcomes in "The Challenges of a Residency Education Program for Competencies in Organizational Ethics."

To obtain a copy of the special issue, contact Organizational Ethics at (240)420-0036 or Sales@OrganizationalEthics.com.

Posted: April 1, 2005

The Journal of Animal Law and Ethics has recently been approved as an unofficial journal at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, to be run by students with the support of a faculty advisory board. JALE seeks to provide a scholarly forum for cross-disciplinary engagement of issues of animal law and ethics. Animal law scholarship and practice have increased steadily in the past decade, and there remains only one other journal on the topic in the country. We feel that this is an area that is still vastly underrepresented within the legal and intellectual community, and hope to use the journal as a means to both spark interest and educate others. The study of animal law encompasses a multitude of areas of law (among them, criminal law, health law, family law, tort law, and property law) while also intersecting with non-legal disciplines (such as ethics, philosophy, medicine, history, criminology, and religious studies). This journal was started by members of Penn Law’s Student Animal Legal Defense Fund in hopes of providing a respected legal journal that addresses some of the most pressing issues of the day regarding animal law and ethics.

We at the Journal are currently seeking submissions for our first issue, set to be published during the next academic year. Submissions may touch upon any topic that is related to the field of animal law or ethics. For questions, or if you have interest in submitting an article, please contact Matthew Olesh at molesh@law.upenn.edu.

The editors and staff of the Journal of Philosophy, Science & Law, www.psljournal.com, would like to introduce you to our peer reviewed online publication dedicated to addressing the intersection of applied philosophy, science, and the law. The journal provides a forum for scientists, lawyers, philosophers, historians, psychologists, sociologists, policy analysts, political scientists, students, and other interested scholars to express and exchange their views.

As science and technology advance, there will continue to be challenging philosophical and legal issues that need to be sorted out and thoroughly investigated. An analysis of these issues can have a significant and positive impact on educational programs, public policy, and professional practice.

Interested scholars are invited to submit manuscripts for consideration, including full-length articles, profiles of legal cases, policy proposals, student papers, book reviews, and letters to the editor. The journal also encourages you to share relevant information about professional meetings and to respond to articles published by the journal. Accepted feature articles will be available online following the journal's double-blind peer review process.

Past contributions include:

Susan Haack's An Epistemologist in the Bramble-Bush
Richard Haigh and Mirko Bagaric's Immortality and Sentencing Law
Brent Garland's Bioethics and Bioterrorism
Annabelle Lever's Ethics and the Patenting of Human Genes
Bryn Williams-Jones's Commercial Surrogacy and the Redefinition of Motherhood

Feel free to share information about the journal with interested colleagues, friends, and students. Please contact us at editor@psljournal.com if you have any questions or comments about the journal.

HEC Forum, an international, multi-disciplinary, blinded, peer-review journal, in its 16th volume, invites the submission of original manuscripts and detailed case studies. Submissions may be directed for inclusion in a particular thematic issue or for a non thematic number.

Some of our forthcoming thematic issues include: Preserving Institutional Moral Integrity; Business Ethics and Health Care Institutions: Conflicts within Organizational Ethics; The Free-Market and Meaningful Health Care Reform; Institutional Ethics; At the Edges of Informed Consent: Controversial Cases; Managing Clinical Conflicts of Interest; The Role of the Ethics Consultant; Risk Management in the Face of Lawsuit Abuse; Understanding Futility. If your manuscript is for a particular thematic issue, please so indicate, and it will be forwarded to the appropriate issue editor.

Manuscripts may be submitted either by regular mail to Mark J. Cherry, Editor-in-Chief, HealthCare Ethics Committee Forum, Department of Philosophy, Saint Edward's University, 3001 S. Congress Ave., Box 844, Austin, Texas 78704 or through e-mail attachment to markc@admin.stedwards.edu.

In either case, manuscripts should be appropriately blinded for peer review, with author information appearing only on a coversheet.

In the volumes to come, HEC Forum will continue to seek to be fresh, novel, international, multi-disciplinary, and controversial, while fulfilling an essential educational role for health care ethics committees regarding issues at the interface of morality, religion, law, and healthcare.

Association for Practical and Professional Ethics
Indiana University
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Bloomington, Indiana 47405-3602
Telephone (812) 855-6450; FAX (812) 855-3315
Questions pertaining to this web site can be sent to appe @ indiana.edu

Publications and Journal Announcements

Publications of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics

To order Association publications, send payment or contact us at: Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Indiana University, 618 East Third Street, Bloomington, IN 47405 (812) 855-6450

Research Ethics: Cases and Commentaries, Volume 7

Oxford University Press Series in Practical and Professional Ethics

Research Ethics: Cases and Commentaries

How to Survive Graduate School and Start your Career in Science/Engineering

Developing Relationships: How Ethics Centers Can Succeed with Raising Funds

Buy-in: Everything but Money!

Mission , Vision and Strategic Planning

Ethics Centers and Conflict of Interest

Identifying Funding Sources for Ethics Centers

Benchmarks of Ethics Center Excellence

Ethically Speaking

Other Publications and Journals

APPE Publications