Freedom, Principles and Responsibilities in Research

Abstract

In this presentation, I address the relationship between the concepts of freedom, principles and responsibility in research and the need to think about the relationship between these three concepts in a social context. Freedom is related to the ability of researchers to develop their research autonomously, choosing their study topics without censorship or coercion. However, such freedom must be problematized its limits, such as, for example, considering respect for human rights. Individual freedom, therefore, has legal and ethical limits, as well as being thought of in terms of collective well-being and the public interest. With regard to the principles, those inherent to the scientific method and those of ethics in research are highlighted. The principles inherent to the scientific method, such as reason and non-contradiction, must be considered in addition to those intrinsic to the specificities of each area of ​​knowledge. Likewise, research ethics presents some principles, among them respect for people, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice, as foreseen in North American principialist bioethics. However, these principles can be considered limited in certain social contexts. Therefore, the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights (UBDH) presents at least thirteen principles that can complement the logic of thinking about principles in scientific research in a social context. In turn, responsibility mentions the researcher's obligations in relation to the research carried out. It is the researcher's duty to ensure scientific integrity, not incurring in acts such as plagiarism, falsification or data fabrication. or inventing data, as well as issues related to authorship criteria, following ethical and legal precepts, communicating study results, as well as having social responsibility. It is important to think about the values ​​attached to research and scientific publication today. Does the value of productivity or responsibility prevail? In times of exponential growth of scientific studies and increasing social inequalities, it is fundamental to think about the concepts of freedom, principles and responsibility in the social context research.