MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI BHAVNAGAR

UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Registration number: 2117

Paper 1: Research Methodology

The scholar’s life:

Code of manners and ethics
Prepared by:
Research Scholar
Ruchi Joshi
ruchivjoshi101@gmail.com
 This presentation deals with…
• Importance and need of Code of manners and ethics

• Scholar’s code of manners and Ethics

• Working together for the benefit of society, not for private aggrandizement.

• All knowledge in public domain

• Property rights should be respected

• Purpose of (Intellectual)Property rights for research scholars

• Other noteworthy Codes of manners and ethics according to Richard Altick

• A scholar must not contravene the very spirit of scholarship.

 Importance and need of
Code of manners and ethics
ethics is like almost everything else that we strive
to be good at; it requires practice and effort.
Practicing and making an effort to make moral
decisions throughout life will pay dividends when
we are faced with serious moral dilemmas.
Furthermore, having insight into “…historical,
political, economic, sociological and psychological
insights…” (Lafollette, 2007, p.7) allows us, as
decision-makers, to make more informed decisions,
which will likely result in moral decisions.

( as cited in McCartney and Parent 1.1 the

importance of ethical behaviour)
Scholar’s code of manners and Ethics

Like all professions, ours has its

code of manners and ethics, the heart
of which is the proposition that we
are working together for the benefit
of society, not for private
aggrandizement. How!?..
(Altick The Art of Literary Research)
 Working together for the benefit of
society, not for private aggrandizement.
(Altick The Art of Literary Research)

presents them to the society as a

deals with the social issues in detail
mirror in which people may look at
which helps people to realize the
their own images and make amends
truth and think it in a different view
wherever necessary. Even the most representative writer
of a given time cannot express a
complete picture of his time and
society because it would lead to the
idea that a writer conveys the truth
analyse societal issues and
and necessarily the historical and
sometimes it provides us a solution
the social truths.
to solve the problem

Literature records the real life Endorse social wellbeing and to not only a reflection of the society

events from the society and converts prevent or lessen social harms but also serves a beacon light which

these mundane activities into fiction through research guide people to find the right path.

( S. Literature and society: How literature reflects society. - technoarete)

 All knowledge in public domain
(Altick The Art of Literary Research)

• Scholars are expected to publish and disseminate the results of their research in

an open, honest, transparent, and accurate manner, and via all appropriate media

such as journal papers, books, reviews, software, a data repository, or

conference proceedings.

• ‘Scientists and technicians may have their patents, but in humane learning all

knowledge is in the public domain.’ (Altick The Art of Literary Research)

 “He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening
mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.”
― Thomas Jefferson

Property rights should be respected & All knowledge in public domain

That ideas should freely spread from one to another over

the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and
improvement of his condition, seems to have been
peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, like fire,
expansible over all space, without lessening their density in
any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and
have our physical being, incapable of confinement or
exclusive appropriation.”
― Thomas Jefferson
(Jefferson and Franklin The selected writings of Thomas
Jefferson)
 Purpose of (Intellectual)Property rights for
research scholars
(…the product of innovative, diligent, creative, and intellectual effort. )

encourage new
creations
Scholars should ensure that
they keep all their field and scholars are required to
lab notebooks and other familiarize themselves with,
records of data collection
and strictly observe the terms
and experimental findings
and conditions relating to and
for evidencing the creation
confidentiality in any
of new property arising out
of their research work. research, grant, contract, or
collaboration.
scholars are also expected to respect this
property created by others, use it only
with appropriate permissions, and fully
comply with all relevant credits and
Other noteworthy Codes of manners and ethics
according to Richard Altick
(Altick The Art of Literary Research)

• Differences of opinion there will always be there

• scholarly competence not being a gift distributed equally among all practitioners, lapses of

judgment and imperfections of knowledge will sometimes call for comment.

• Otherwise literary study would stagnate, complacent in its intellectual lethargy and spotted

with uncorrected errors.

• Necessary process of debate and correction can, and should, be conducted with dignity and

courtesy.

• Controversial points can be made, effectively and adequately, without betraying the ancient

association of scholarship with gentlemanliness.

(Altick The Art of Literary Research)

 A scholar must not contravene the very spirit of
scholarship.

“That much can freely be conceded to him as the fortunate

or ingenious discoverer. But if he simply sits on his claim
indefinitely, meanwhile refusing to let any other, more
energetic, scholar mine it, he is contravening the very
spirit of scholarship.”

(Altick The Art of Literary Research)

 References

• Altick, Richard Daniel. The Art of Literary Research. NORTON, 1975.

• Jefferson, Thomas, and Wayne Franklin. The Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson. W.W.

Norton & Company, 2010.

• McCartney, Steve, and Rick Parent. “1.1 The Importance of Ethical Behaviour.” Ethics in

Law Enforcement, BCcampus, 17 Apr. 2015,

https://opentextbc.ca/ethicsinlawenforcement/chapter/the-importance-of-ethical-behaviour/.

• S. , Keerthika. Literature and Society: How Literature Reflects Society. - Technoarete. Apr.

2018, https://www.technoarete.org/common_abstract/pdf/0/v5/i4/Ext_82439.pdf.
T h a n k Yo u