A philosopher putting together resources for a professionalization seminar for graduate students in his department writes in with concerns about the “ethics of credit” in philosophy.
A dive into citation practices in philosophy points to some troubling practices not generally covered in discussions about plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. We suggest these are matters to be discussed in professional development and resource material.
While the students are familiar with issues of scientific misconduct, fraud and discrimination, one particular issue that has been bothering me concerns the ethics of credit. In published and unpublished papers I’ve read over the years I’ve noticed (or imagined) a trend towards more manipulative and self-serving uses of citations and acknowledgements in varieties of ways.
Here are a few types of misuse of citation he has noticed, often as part of an implicit or explicit credit claim:
- Bullciting: a source cited as providing evidence for a claim does not in fact provide that evidence